Transit Board to Consider Ways to Restart Bus Service

Offering some hope for a group of frustrated commuters, the Antelope Valley Transit Authority agreed Monday to look for ways to re-establish bus service from Lancaster to Century City and Van Nuys.

After a hearing Monday morning, the authority’s board of directors initially voted to formally terminate the bus service, discontinued when federal emergency funding ran out July 15. But then the board decided to give its staff two weeks to come up with alternatives that may resurrect the commuter line.

A major issue was whether the service--started after the Northridge earthquake, using mostly Federal Emergency Management Agency funds--could be justified because of its low ridership.

Tim Galbraith, the transit authority’s grants director, said the line had averaged 12 riders a day, meaning that two full-size coaches with 45 seats each had been going mostly empty.

However, during the hearing, six riders on the now-defunct bus line offered several suggestions to make it more feasible, such as dropping one of the buses, improving advertising or changing the route so the bus would also go past the UCLA campus in Westwood.

“We were all very encouraged by the reception we received,” said Billie Dickey of Pearblossom, one of the commuters who was at the hearing to offer support for the line.

The board has scheduled a special meeting for 10 a.m. Aug. 8 to go over the possibilities of restoring the bus line.

“There is a lot of work to be done between now and Aug. 8,” Galbraith said. “There’s a lot of pencils that need to be sharpened, a lot of phone calls to be made and rocks to be turned over so we can come up with a plan to present to the board of directors.”

A commute by bus to Century City cost $130 a month, but that fare was subsidized by the FEMA money, Galbraith said.

The authority’s board on Monday also approved fare hikes for local and other commuter lines. Effective Monday, the fare on the local routes will go up from 75 cents to 80 cents. Fares for the punch pass on routes to Downtown Los Angeles and the western San Fernando Valley will go up $5 each--to $105 and $125, respectively.

The punch pass gives 20 rides to Downtown or 44 rides to the western San Fernando Valley, Galbraith said. The charge for the monthly pass to each of those destinations will not change. However, the fare for the monthly pass on the local route will go up from $20 to $21.