Valley Transit Zone Would Beat MTA Costs, Report Says

A separate transit zone serving the San Fernando Valley would perform better financially than the current service provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to a report released Monday.

The report examined operations and staffing of a potential Valley system, as well as similar breakaway bus agencies. The report could play a significant role should the plan be put to a vote before the MTA board, which has authority to approve the idea.

“The numbers are promising,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, after a two-hour meeting of city, county and transit representatives at the Glendale Municipal Services Building.

The proposed Valley transportation zone would include Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, La Canada Flintridge, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Hidden Hills and portions of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. To win the required MTA approval, the zone must show it can provide cheaper and more efficient service.

Although the projections need fine-tuning, Yaroslavsky said, he is optimistic.

“If the Valley is left to its own devices, we could run a better and more efficient transit system than a superagency,” he said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla agreed, saying that the report’s conclusions bode well for an autonomous Valley transit zone. “There are outstanding questions,” Padilla said, “but the numbers look promising and that gives us hope.”

But secession from the MTA would be made more difficult by pending legislation in Sacramento.

Senate Bill 1101, sponsored by state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City), requires the new operator of a bus service to pay wages and benefits consistent with those now received by MTA workers.

In October, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed an earlier version of Murray’s bill, which was backed by the unions representing MTA drivers and mechanics.

“[The bill] is intended to be a dagger in the heart of the transit zone,” Yaroslavsky said. “I hope that local discretion is not taken away, so that we can negotiate with labor and the MTA, and not be at a disadvantage.”

Transit zone proponents on the panel voted Monday not to support Murray’s bill. But the action was a symbolic gesture because the panel has no standing in Senate deliberations.

Goldy Norton, a spokesman for the United Transportation Union, which represents MTA bus drivers, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Privatizing bus service has boosted quality and cut costs on 26 lines in the San Gabriel Valley run by the Foothill Transit Zone, a breakaway system established in 1987.

But critics argue that Foothill’s drivers and other workers, who are paid far less than MTA workers, bear the brunt of reduced costs.

By MTA estimates, the Valley zone would be the second largest in the county after its own agency, operating 420 buses on 26 1/2 routes and carrying 52 million riders a year.

Two groups of city, county and transit representatives have been meeting for months on the proposal. One is a policy committee of leaders from the affected cities, and the other a technical advisory group of city staffers and representatives from the county.

The transit zone feasibility study was prepared by a group of independent consultants.

Russell E. Chisholm, president of Transportation Management and Design Inc. of Solana Beach, Calif., presented the report at Monday’s session.