High-Capacity Buses to Be Studied by MTA

Moving ahead with a plan that has drawn criticism from some local lawmakers, Metropolitan Transit Authority officials announced Monday that the agency will study the feasibility of operating high-capacity buses along congested transportation corridors.

An east-west San Fernando Valley line connecting the North Hollywood Red Line Metro station and the Burbank Transit Center to the Chatsworth Metrolink station is one of four corridors being considered for the proposed system, which would be modeled after similar systems in Brazil and Canada, MTA officials said.

The buses, which would run on clean fuel sources such as compressed natural gas, would carry as many as 100 passengers and would be given preference at street lights and intersections. Traveling in pairs, the buses would operate on exclusive busways in a manner similar to light rail systems, officials said.

“It’s one possibility for moving large amounts of people in an efficient and cost-effective way,” said MTA spokeswoman Marion MacKenzie. “And, it’s a way that is nonpolluting.”

Mayor Richard Riordan, who recently became chairman of the MTA, said in a statement that the bus system could potentially be in place by the year 2000--at a fraction of the cost of a rail system.

“Everyone knows that money is tight and the need is great for innovative transportation solutions,” Riordan said. “The use of this special bus technology like that now in service in Curitiba, Brazil, might provide us a way to carry more people along crowded transportation corridors and reduce the number of people driving their cars alone.”

But county supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mike Antonovich criticized the plan when it was first discussed earlier this year, saying that Riordan only supported the bus system because he wanted money for trains to go to the Eastside and Pasadena.

Yaroslavsky said that the bus system would be inappropriate for the Burbank-Chandler corridor, the most likely route of a Valley line.

The MTA will hire an outside firm by January to conduct the study and officials said they hoped to review the findings by the spring.