Bus Program to Eliminate 2 Stops

Starting Thursday, the Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority will eliminate its two Oak Park stops, saying the stops were seldom used and made the VISTA east route longer than necessary.

“All they were doing was adding time to the entire loop, and there were not really riders in that area,” said Laurie Anderson, transit manager for the Ventura County Transportation Commission. “We thought it would be the most efficient thing if we eliminated the stops in Oak Park.”

VISTA officials warned the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council, which lobbied hard to get a bus stop in the unincorporated area, that it was considering stopping service to the stops. They cited statistics showing that fewer than two Oak Park riders per week were using the state-funded intercity service, instituted in July 1994.

Part of the reason Oak Park residents don’t use the buses, according to the Oak Park council, is the county’s popular Dial-A-Ride program. The service, which previously allowed Oak Park residents to travel anywhere within the unincorporated area and Agoura Hills, was expanded last October to include travel for seniors and the disabled to Thousand Oaks.

Elimination of the stops in the the east route--which serves passengers in Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Agoura--will cut about 10 minutes from the 70-minute loop, Anderson said.

VISTA is an express bus program operated by the Ventura County Transportation Commission in cooperation with Ventura County, Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks. For information on the new schedule, call the commission at 642-1591.