Camarillo Agrees to Transit Plan

The Camarillo City Council has approved spending $17,000 in each of the next two years to participate in a public transit experiment that officials hope will help unsnarl traffic and shuttle employees to and from their work sites.

But the council had little alternative this week because the federal government would have taken the money out of the city’s federal transportation funds if the council had not cooperated.

For Camarillo, the project would add an extra Interconnect bus from Camarillo to Point Mugu that would also serve the state hospital and Camarillo Airport. The new bus would shorten by half the existing two-hour schedule.

Another bus would travel the Ventura Freeway between Westlake and Ventura. Most of the cost for the experiment, scheduled to begin July 1, will be funded by the U. S. Department of Transportation.

“It is recorded that there are people in Camarillo who want improved bus service,” Councilman David M. Smith said. “We’re fortunate that we have the demonstration almost completely paid for by the federal government.”

Under terms of the two-year plan, if 12% or more of the cost of the project is recovered at the fare box, Camarillo may be required to maintain the service without federal funding--at a cost of $142,000 a year.

The new routes would be in addition to the existing bus schedules already operating in Ventura County.