Bus Route Cutbacks Blasted at Hearing

Scores of bus riders railed against cuts planned to several popular San Fernando Valley bus lines at a contentious hearing Saturday morning at MTA headquarters in which police arrested one man and escorted a second from the room.

However, many opposed to the cuts supported a second proposal to introduce a new bus service in the Valley and between East Los Angeles and the Westside, designed to be faster and have fewer stops.

None of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members showed up to witness the fracas or listen to the testimony, however, further angering many of the approximately 150 people who attended the hearing.

“Thousands of people who work in the Valley cleaning houses, school students and disabled people are going to be affected by this,” said Elizabeth Medrano, 23. “Where is the board?”

Dana Woodbury, the MTA hearing officer who bore the brunt of frequent outbursts directed at the agency, said board members will have the opportunity to review the testimony, recorded by a court reporter. Board members rarely attend hearings involving routing changes, he said.

“It’s normal practice,” to have a hearing officer designated to attend the meeting, said Woodbury, the agency’s deputy executive director for service, planning and scheduling.

The bus line cutbacks, which the board won’t act on until January, are designed to streamline transit service, redirecting several bus lines to feed into two Red Line subway stations set to open next summer in North Hollywood and Universal City.

MTA officials say the changes, which will affect at least 5,000 bus riders, will avoid duplication of bus and rail service. Most of those affected ride express lines between the Valley and downtown Los Angeles.

Funneled Into Subway

Under the proposal, those commuters will instead exit at one of the two new Valley subway stations and take the Red Line downtown. While MTA officials estimate the total travel time will be about the same, fares under the new plan will drop between 50 cents and $2, depending on the type of ticket purchased.

However, officials with the Bus Riders Union said they believe the changes are designed to force commuters onto the subways, boosting rail ridership numbers and providing justification for the $4.5-billion system.

Many of the commuters who now use the bus said the changes will increase the number of times they have to transfer buses. That would result in longer commutes.

Longer Commute Expected

Carlos Royal, 30, who takes buses from his home in Baldwin Village in southwest Los Angeles to his job in Northridge, said his commute would jump from 90 minutes a day to more than two hours.

“You should have more buses and less money put in the subway,” Royal said.

A minority of the more than 50 speakers supported the changes. Southern California Transit Advocates, another transit group frequently at odds with the Bus Riders Union, generally approved of the modifications, saying they would allow the MTA to redirect resources to relieve crowding on the agency’s busiest lines.

The transit group joined the Bus Riders Union and others at the meeting in endorsing the new Metro Rapid Bus service, which will run along Ventura Boulevard in the Valley and along Wilshire and Whittier boulevards between East Los Angeles and the Westside. The only reservations came from the Bus Riders Union and others who objected to proposed cuts to other bus lines that run along the same route.

Five-Minute Maximum Wait

The new service, which will be sort of a subway on wheels, will have stops one mile apart, with buses arriving every five minutes.

“What we need is a well-coordinated public transit system. Rail is part of that system,” said Pat Moser, a spokesman for Southern California Transit Advocates.

William Tut Hayes, a well-known gadfly who was arrested at another public meeting, was taken into custody moments after the beginning of public comment when he began arguing with police officers. The confrontation ended when police wrestled Hayes to the ground and dragged him from the room. Hayes, who police said was 50, was booked on charges of disrupting a public meeting.

Another man was escorted from the room when he began shouting protests against the absence of board members.