MTA Approves Overhaul of Valley’s Bus System

In the most sweeping overhaul of the San Fernando Valley’s bus system in 20 years, transportation officials agreed Wednesday to reroute and cancel some lines to streamline service and to establish transit bases that will connect buses with employment centers, train stations and subway stops.

By June of next year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will revamp two dozen bus lines that serve about 5,200 riders throughout the Valley, from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to the foothill communities in the Valley’s northeastern corner.

Underused routes will be canceled or absorbed into other lines. Several routes will shift onto main streets or be extended to serve major job centers in response to longtime criticism that buses do not go where people want or link together sensibly.

The changes form the first phase of an ambitious plan to dot the rim of the Valley with transit nodes where passengers can transfer between buses or switch to rail travel more easily.

Beginning in December, 1995, the MTA hopes to install transit bases at Warner Center, Cal State Northridge, the planned Universal City subway stop and the Chatsworth, Sylmar/San Fernando and Burbank Metrolink train stations. According to the restructuring plan, bus lines will radiate from the centers in a “hub-and-spoke” pattern--a departure from the traditional grid system of north-south and east-west routes that has prevailed in the Valley since the 1970s.

New routes will allow passengers to travel within Valley neighborhoods on a single bus, without many of the confusing transfers now necessary to change directions on the grid. Smaller, more frequent shuttles, modeled after the city’s DASH system, will make short hops within communities, although important details still need to be worked out before shuttle service can begin in 1996.

“We’re trying to figure out how to do it--who’s going to operate it, who’s going to fund it,” said Mark R. Dierking, the MTA’s manager of government and public affairs for northern Los Angeles County.

“The bottom line,” he said, “is to improve service.”

Adoption of the wide-ranging innovations caps a five-year discussion on how best to reconfigure the Valley’s 64 bus lines, which move 150,000 people daily and cover nearly a quarter of the MTA’s entire operating area countywide.

Combatting what they saw as official neglect, Valley advocates and community leaders convened to discuss ways to improve a transit system left practically untouched for two decades. Last year, city and county agencies commissioned a $500,000 report that went over Valley bus service line by line and produced the recommendations approved Wednesday.

“The study was a microstudy of the system that we’re rarely able to do,” Dierking said.

Planners suggested integrating bus and rail centers and better coordinating schedules often developed without regard for connecting different lines. At the six transit centers to be established throughout the Valley, “timed transfers” will synchronize arrivals and departures to eliminate long waits.

In addition to the transit centers, the MTA plans to upgrade 20 local bus stops by building improved shelters with direct telephone access to the MTA for passengers to report problems or receive route and scheduling information.

Although some elements of the restructuring plan--such as the upgraded stops and the community shuttle service--will require a sizable amount of money, officials believe the restructuring plan will save the cash-strapped MTA about $4 million a year, mostly through shedding lesser-used routes and contracting out operation of some lines.

On Wednesday, the MTA board directed planners to look for ways to further cut costs and to report back next month.

In January, the agency will hold a formal public hearing in Van Nuys on the new plan, with any modifications to be made in time for the MTA to begin the first phase of the project by April.

One of the areas most heavily targeted for improved service was Warner Center, which 20 years ago consisted mainly of the Topanga Plaza shopping center and the nearby Rocketdyne facility. The area has since become one of the Valley’s busiest commercial centers, with high-rise office buildings and a cluster of new apartments.

Recognizing its importance, the MTA has designated the neighborhood as the terminus for the east-west Valley subway system to be built over the next 25 years. Officials also chose it as the site of one of the transit nodes to be installed under the restructuring plan.

“Warner Center is one center in the Valley that has kind of grown into a hub,” said Irwin Rosenberg, a vice president with Laidlaw Transit Services, a private bus company.

Rosenberg’s firm currently runs some of the city’s DASH buses around Warner Center, including commuter services during rush hour and midday shuttles within the neighborhood. Because so much traffic radiates from the area, Rosenberg said a hub-and-spoke pattern of bus lines as outlined in the MTA plan makes sense.

The current system “hasn’t really met transportation needs,” he said. “The assumption is that folks only go north-south (and) east-west, and the assumption isn’t always right.”

Bus Route Changes

Line number: 406,407,412

Proposed change: Cancel service

Target date: April, 1995

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Line number: LADOT 409

Proposed change: Modify route to operate from Maclay Avenue and Foothill Boulevard primarily via Foothill Boulevard, Foothill (210) Freeway, Lowell Avenue, Honolulu Avenue-Verdugo Boulevard, then via express to Downtown Los Angeles; modify route in Downtown Los Angeles to operate to financial district

Target date: April, 1995

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Line number: 96

Proposed change: Modify route to operate on Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks

Target date: To be arranged

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Line number: 97

Proposed change: Cancel service; interrelated to Line 96

Target date: To be arranged

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Line number: 163

Proposed change: Extend western terminal to Warner Center Transit Center via Owensmouth Avenue; modify eastern terminal to operate primarily via Hollywood Way, through Cahuenga Pass to Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 164,165

Proposed change: Modify route of Line 164 slightly to deviate to Warner Center Transit Center

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 168

Proposed change: Extend western terminal to operate primarily via De Soto Avenue to Warner Center Transit Center; modify eastern terminal to operate via Van Nuys Boulevard to Foothill Boulevard and Arroyo Street

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 169

Proposed change: Modify route to eliminate loop around Burbank Airport and extend eastern terminal to Mt. Gleason Avenue

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 177

Proposed change: Operate as three segments: 1) Glendale Galleria to JPL, 2) JPL to Hastings Ranch Center, 3) Hastings Ranch Center to City of Hope

Target date: To be arranged

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Line number: 180,181

Proposed change: Extend eastern terminal of Line 181 to Pasadena City College

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 212

Proposed change: Truncate northbound route at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 233

Proposed change: Restructured Line 560 local service between Eldridge Avenue and Terra Bella Street to Van Nuys and Ventura boulevards

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 236

Proposed change: Extend northbound route on Balboa Boulevard via Pineridge Drive, Knollwood Road, Shamhart Drive, Gothic Avenue to Woodley Avenue; modify southbound route to operate via Victory Boulevard to Van Nuys Boulevard

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 240

Proposed change: Cancel service; service on Reseda Boulevard replaced by new Line 522

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 411

Proposed change: New--operates from Warner Center Transit Center to Burbank Transit Center primarily via Victory Boulevard to Laurel Canyon Boulevard, then express to Colorado Street in Glendale, along Colorado Street, then continue the freeway to the financial district in Downtown Los Angeles

Target date: To be arranged

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Line number: 418

Proposed change: Extend westbound service on Roscoe Boulevard to Topanga Canyon Boulevard

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 424,425

Proposed change: Shorten western terminal end at Warner City Transit Center. Operates with new Line 522

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 522

Proposed change: Restructured Line 240 along Reseda Boulevard, then operates along the route of Lines 424 / 425 to Los Angeles City College

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 560

Proposed change: Cancel service; local service between Lake View Terrace and Sherman Oaks replaced by Line 233; service between Sherman Oaks and LAX replaced by Line 561

Target date: June, 1995

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Line number: 561

Proposed change: Restructured Line 560 limited stop service from Sylmar/San Fernando Transit Center primarily along Truman Street, San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard, then via local service along route of former Line 560 to LAX

Target date: June, 1995

Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority