Intercity Bus Line Funded a 3rd Year Despite Few Riders

Despite a limited number of riders, the Ventura County Transportation Commission on Friday approved a third year of operation for a bus service designed to link cities to one another.

Commissioners voted unanimously to spend another $1.6 million operating the Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority, which operates eight sleek, white VISTA buses.

Transportation Commission officials, who were unable to provide exact ridership figures, estimate that less than 12% of the cost of keeping the VISTA buses running will be recovered at the fare box over the upcoming year. This falls short of a state mandate that public transportation systems cover at least 20% of their operating costs.

“The goal at the end of the second year was that the services meet a 12% [fare box] recovery,” said Mary Travis, a manager with the county transit agency. “They all met that recovery, and that’s why they were continued.”

The intercity bus system was launched two years ago as a pilot effort to link for the first time all of Ventura County’s cities except Ojai through a single public transit system.

At the time, transit planners hoped to lure enough passengers to its four routes to recover 5% of its operating cost the first year, with incremental increases afterward.

But they now estimate the bus system will generate just 11.7% of its expenses through next June.

A multimillion-dollar federal transportation grant paid for 80% of the two-year project, and despite low ridership the grant money has been approved for operating VISTA for a third year.

The balance of the costs will be covered by rider fares and contributions from Ventura County and those cities where the service operates.

“While a 12% or 15% is not 20%, that’s still a good percentage of people riding,” Travis said. “Our goal is not to leave anybody stranded, but to do something to cut costs.”

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VISTA buses operate along four fixed routes and on five dial-a-ride schedules. The two most popular lines extend along the Ventura Freeway and California 126, routes that recover 14% and 15% of their cost from the fare box, respectively.

But the other two fixed routes--the east line through Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks; and the central line between Oxnard, Camarillo, the Point Mugu Navy base and Camarillo State Hospital--have lured far fewer riders.

The central line, for example, is expected to attract only enough passengers to pay for 7% of its $260,000 annual cost this year, officials said. The east line performance is expected to be even lower, with analysts projecting collections of only 6.6% through the third year.

Systemwide, county transit officials expect to collect $186,025 from fares out of the nearly $1.6 million it will cost to operate the VISTA fleet this year. An adult one-way ticket costs $1.

Despite the shortfall, many of those who ride the intercity buses say they would be lost without the system.

“I’m going to be very upset if it closes,” said Shirley Pena, a psychiatric technician at Camarillo State Hospital who said she rides VISTA buses two or three times a week.

“VISTA has a lot to offer over other bus systems,” said the Camarillo resident. “South Coast Area Transit goes to Camarillo and Camarillo Area Transit doesn’t go outside Camarillo.”

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Laura Pavey agreed. A work counselor for developmentally disabled patients, she said her clients would be without jobs if they could not use the intercity bus route.

“It would be really costly to the employers because they would have to pay to get my clients to their work sites,” said Pavey, riding the VISTA 101 bus earlier this week.

“It would be detrimental to the progress we’ve made with the clients if the bus system were taken away,” Pavey said. “The bus system is a key component of supported employment.”

In an effort to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Ventura County Transportation Commission officials already have tinkered with the VISTA system since it was introduced two years ago.

Specifically, they eliminated Oak Park from the east route, trimming operating costs as well as route times. Other minor changes also have been implemented.

Travis said the same sort of adjustments would be made early next year, when commission planners begin looking at how best to spend the 1997-98 transit money.

“This has been a harder sell in areas where there hasn’t been bus service there before,” Travis said. “But that’s exactly what a demonstration is designed to do--find out where the demand is.

“We’ll keep fiddling with the schedules during this third year and decide what to do after the first of the year,” she said.

But Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis, a member of the county Transportation Commission, said he could not support a fourth year of VISTA bus service in east Ventura County unless ridership improves.

“I’m not a real big backer of the VISTA bus, only because it has not been successful in the east county,” said Davis, who nonetheless voted Friday to support it for a third year.

“We’ll see how it works out,” Davis said. “If it doesn’t improve this segment, I will not support it the next time around.”