County Getting Express Bus to Warner Center

After years spent hounding federal and local agencies to increase regional public transportation options, the Ventura County Transportation Commission announced Wednesday that an express bus route will open next month to ferry county residents to the San Fernando Valley.

Beginning Aug. 10, the Conejo Connection will carry passengers from various places in the county to Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

“We’re delighted that residents of Ventura County will be able to use public transit to this major work site in the San Fernando Valley,” said transportation commission Chairwoman Nancy Grasmehr in a written statement.

“In addition to providing our county’s residents with express service to the Warner Center throughout the day, this new service provides Los Angeles County residents with another means of traveling into our county for work and other purposes,” she said.

The bus service, which is being funded through a joint agreement between the county’s transportation commission and the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Los Angeles, will make stops at Park-and-Ride lots and regular bus stops in Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills.

According to the Warner Center Transportation Management Organization, about 25% of the center’s 40,000 employees commute from Ventura County each day. Of that number, about 400 have expressed an interest in using public transportation to travel.

For passengers who need to continue past Warner Center, there are MTA bus lines to take them to downtown Los Angeles and points farther south.

The project, which is to run initially as a two-year test, will cost $292,000 a year.

About $200,000, is coming from federal grants under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. The MTA has agreed to kick in an additional $50,000 a year, with the remaining $42,000 coming from fares.

By agreeing to administer the program, Ventura County will not have to spend any money to operate the Conejo Connection.

Although it is only a two-year pilot program, officials of the Ventura County Transportation Commission hope that its popularity will catch on and that it will be extended far into the future.

“The Conejo Connection was started because people said there was a need, so we’re confident it will be extended past two years,” said Maureen Hooper Lopez, director of transit programs at the transportation commission.

The bus will run between 6 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information on the Conejo Connection, routes and fares, call the commission’s Dial-a-Route center at (800) 438-1112.