Riders Flock to MTA Services, but Strike Is Predicted

More than 50,000 riders boarded the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new Metro rapid bus system along Wilshire and Whittier boulevards in July, making the new express service the agency’s most heavily used bus line.

The newly expanded Red Line subway to the San Fernando Valley also experienced a surge in passenger volume last month to 119,150 weekday boardings, a gain of 54,000 daily boardings over May, the last full month before the subway from Hollywood to the Valley opened in late June. The July ridership was the highest ever for the subway system, which now runs from Union Station to North Hollywood. Parking lots at the two Valley stations often are full in the morning, forcing commuters to search for another place to park.

A second rapid bus line from Warner Center to the Universal City subway station via Ventura Boulevard recorded about 10,000 boardings during a spot check at the end of July, exceeding expectations.

The sharp upturn in mass transit use also was apparent in the MTA’s overall bus system, which recorded an average of 1.25 million weekday boardings, its highest ridership in more than six years. A boarding is one passenger taking one bus or rail trip. A round trip is two boardings.

“We are ecstatic over the increase in ridership,” said MTA Chief Operating Officer Allan Lipsky. “It’s a combination of new service--the subway to North Hollywood and rapid bus and overall general improvement in our bus and rail system. We feel like everything jelled.”

But Lipsky said it is still early to be sure the increase in ridership is permanent. “We hope it will hold up,” he said.

The MTA heavily promoted the simultaneous start of subway service to the Valley and the launch of the rapid bus system that runs from the Westside to the Eastside through downtown Los Angeles and from Warner Center to the Universal City subway station via Ventura Boulevard.

The new high-tech rapid buses make fewer stops and can hold traffic lights on green to speed their movement.

Dana Woodbury, MTA’s deputy executive officer for service planning and monitoring, said spot checks have shown that about 60% of the rapid bus riders in the Wilshire/Whittier corridor are traveling along the Wilshire portion of the route. The remaining 40% are taking the distinctive red and white buses to the Eastside as far as Montebello.

Martin Hernandez, an organizer with the Bus Riders Union, said the new buses already are overcrowded. “We have very fast sardines now,” he said.

Woodbury said there is no question that the rapid buses were crowded, particularly early on. “We were pleasantly surprised by the demand for rapid bus service,” he said. About two-thirds of the bus passengers in the Wilshire/Whittier corridor are taking the rapid bus.

In the Valley, the Ventura Boulevard rapid bus line is carrying more passengers west away from the Universal City station in the morning than are traveling to the subway. Woodbury said there is “higher demand from people commuting into the Valley for work.”

Overall ridership on the MTA bus system has increased for five consecutive months from March through July compared with the same period last year. He attributed some of the increase to a greater number of transfers because of the rapid bus service and the start of subway service to the Valley, as well as to the changes in Valley bus routes accompanying the subway opening.

Overall ridership on MTA rail lines also reached a new high of 208,425 average weekday boardings in July. The increase was entirely the result of higher ridership on the now complete $4.7-billion subway system.

The June 24 opening of three new subway stations at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, Universal City and North Hollywood increased passenger volumes over May levels. An average of 119,150 boardings was reported on weekdays, up from 65,150 in May.

MTA officials had predicted that ridership on the subway would reach 120,000 daily boardings within six months of the opening, with the restructuring of MTA bus service in the Valley. When the subway system was being planned in the late 1980s, ridership predictions ran as high as 290,000 boardings a day.

The MTA’s light-rail lines recorded ridership below the all-time highs reached in June. The Los Angeles to Long Beach Blue Line carried 62,550 riders last month, while the Norwalk to El Segundo Green Line carried 26,725 boardings.