Bus Riders Union Calls Pasadena Rail Line ‘Racist’

The leader of the Bus Riders Union declared Thursday that construction of “the racist” Pasadena light-rail line must be stopped, if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is to comply with a federal court order to reduce overcrowding on its buses.

“We are in an enormous fight right now,” said Eric Mann, referring to the federally supervised consent decree governing how many more buses MTA must buy to relieve chronic overcrowding. “There must be a complete moratorium on rail [construction],” he said. “The MTA doesn’t have $350 million to give away” to the Pasadena project.

The state law that stripped the MTA of responsibility for building the Pasadena rail line and gave the job to a new transit agency also envisioned transferring to that new entity the local and state funds already set aside for the project.

Mann, however, charged that the transfer would be a “racist trick,” and said the Bus Riders Union will challenge it at every step because building the Pasadena line will divert funds needed to improve the bus service heavily used by the poor and minorities.

That brought an immediate and sharp retort from MTA spokesman Marc Littman, who accused bus rider advocates of “clouding the issues” by injecting charges of racism. “It is patently untrue,” he said. “The majority of people who are using the Metro [Rail] system are minorities.”

He defended the Pasadena project, saying that it will improve access for the transit-dependent to jobs, schools and medical care. “The argument that only wealthy whites are going to ride the Pasadena Blue Line is specious,” he said.

The 13.6-mile line would follow a twisting route from Union Station through Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, Highland Park, South Pasadena and Pasadena.

The new Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority voted Wednesday night to have its legal counsel examine whether the court battle over MTA’s bus system threatens the $818-million rail project.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the MTA’s chairman, said he still is hopeful of a negotiated settlement with the bus riders, though that seems increasingly unlikely.

Paradoxically, the latest escalation in the long-running fight between MTA’s bus and rail systems came on a day when the opposing factions each offered a vision of how to improve bus service, the backbone of mass transit in Los Angeles.

Riordan, just back from a trip to Curitiba, Brazil, spoke enthusiastically about that city’s innovative bus system and the prospects for a similar network of dedicated busways in Los Angeles County. “It’s a city that really has its act together,” he said.

Riordan said later that the San Fernando Valley may be the first place to test the Curitiba concept of high-speed buses traveling on a separate right of way from other traffic. “Clearly, Burbank-Chandler is a possible route for the Curitiba-type dedicated busways,” he said.

The mayor said there needs to be a consensus in favor of such a busway. “Certainly, I will try to sell it to the Valley,” he said.

Riordan also said Exposition Boulevard at least as far west as Crenshaw Boulevard could be another area to try the busway concept.

And Riordan appeared to have won over at least one skeptical but influential MTA board member, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who also took the trip to Brazil.

“I was very impressed,” Yaroslavsky said. He quoted the former mayor of Curitiba as saying, ‘You can’t be afraid to try simple solutions.’ . . . They’re not afraid to try things, and they’re not afraid to fail.”

But MTA board member James Cragin, a Gardena city councilman, noted that a busway is open in the middle of the Harbor Freeway and “it’s hardly ever used.”

MTA board member Larry Zarian, a Glendale councilman, said that busways are not a cure-all for weaning Los Angeles commuters of their drive-alone habit and that rail lines must remain an option. “This may solve some of the problem but not all of the problem.”

The MTA board in March is expected to consider three pilot busway projects. “You want to go one step at a time and see if it works,” Riordan said, contending that Curitiba-style busways can be built at a fraction of the cost of rail lines. He called the Curitiba system a “subway on tires.”

MTA board member John Fasana drew a smile from Riordan when he suggested that the mayor be given greater authority in the new City Charter to deal with land-use issues. Officials noted that Curitiba’s busways have high ridership precisely because they were built along densely populated corridors where high-rise offices and apartments are concentrated. Brazil also has a much lower percentage of car owners than auto-dependent Los Angeles.

But outside the MTA’s board room, Mann and bus rider advocates offered a dramatically different vision. The group recently presented to a court-appointed special master an $829.7-million plan to expand MTA’s bus fleet to comply with court-ordered limits on overcrowding.

And beyond that, the group wants the court to order a $1.2-billion program to establish a network of express buses on freeways, a rapid bus system on city streets, and a network of local feeder buses.

MTA chief Julian Burke branded the bus riders’ ambitious plan as untested, unaffordable and unnecessary. Instead, the MTA suggested to the court a limited pilot project to improve bus service so the transit-dependent can get to jobs, schools and health care.