For Anxiety Over Bus Reroutings, Four Free Days

As Orange County’s 65,000 daily bus riders anxiously await a sweeping overhaul of routes next month, transportation officials are hoping to buy goodwill from frustrated customers by offering four free days of service.

After hearing complaints Monday from longtime bus riders, Orange County Transportation Authority directors voted to charge riders nothing during the first four days of the new bus regime--a decision the agency estimates will cost $360,000 in lost fares. While directors say the change in routing is necessary to accommodate a surge in ridership and will shave four minutes off the average bus ride, officials concede there may be a few potholes lurking along the way.

“We realize we might be causing some frustrations, but by allowing four free days, we’re showing the public that we’re willing to work through any glitches,” said OCTA Director and County Supervisor Todd Spitzer.

The changes, as well as the free rides, will begin on Sept. 10 when the OCTA changes its 28-year-old network of bus routes to a new, direct line system. Instead of plying circuitous routes that cross and overlap, buses will run in straight lines in a grid-like pattern.

The so-called “point-to-point” system will affect all routes and require more bus transfers for many riders. But despite promises of increased efficiency, the prospect of changing buses one or more times has troubled many riders.

“We feel it’s going to be a disaster,” said Jane Reifer of the Orange County Citizens Bus Restructuring Task Force. Among other complaints, critics say seniors and the disabled will suffer from more transfers, exposing them to heat, rain and possibly crime as they wait for connecting busses.

Victoria Delfina, a 47-year-old Anaheim resident who has been riding the buses for two months as she searches for work, said the route changes will add a 15-minute walk to her daily routine. And Mary Lou Paula Perez said the reroutings will force her to cross a bustling street, which her arthritis makes difficult.

“It doesn’t sound bad, but it is bad,” Perez said. “There are a lot of people who have difficulty--who have walkers, wheelchairs, pain.”

Some riders worry, too, that under the new system, many evening buses will stop running earlier. “We’re worried there will be people out there waiting and the bus won’t be coming,” Reifer said. “They’ll be stranded.”

Officials are scrambling to ease such fears. In addition to the free days, officials say they’ve made arrangements for increased security at bus stops during the first days. More than 100 department volunteers have also worked to notify bus riders of the changes, seeking them out along bus routes and handing them new schedules.

Officials say that although 60% of all bus riders will see their trip times reduced, 30% will see an increase. “When you have 180,000 boardings a day, it’s hard to keep all those people happy,” OCTA spokesman George Urch said.

Officials say county bus ridership is among the fastest growing in the nation and is expected to soar nearly 50% in the next 15 years. It is because of this growth that transportation officials decided to overhaul the bus lines and add 12 new daily routes for a total of 84.

The added and altered routes will cost the OCTA roughly $5.5 million more every year.

The new system will include a streamlined connection between Santa Ana and Newport Beach. The connection now curves into Costa Mesa but that deviation has been cut out, saving 20 minutes, officials said. Also, new buses will be added to the existing Harbor Boulevard route. Together, these two routes account for roughly 20% of all county bus rides.

For information on new routes, phone the OCTA at (714) 636-7433 in north Orange County or (800) 636-7433 in central or south Orange County. Information on the new routes can also be found on the OCTA’s Web site at www.octa.net. Newly published “bus books”--free magazines that contain route maps, times and other details--can be picked up on buses and in transit centers, city halls and libraries.

*

Times Community News reporter Luladey B. Tadesse contributed to this report.