Connections Critical for Orange Line

It took more than two years to build the Orange Line busway, but its success may hinge on a matter of minutes: how long it takes riders to hop a connection.

For riders such as Ana Quiteros, the busway across the south San Fernando Valley built by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority could be a godsend.

Because the two regular buses she takes are often mired in traffic, the 28-year-old printer commutes up to two hours each way between her North Hollywood home and Reseda. Even worse, she complained, one of the lines runs only once an hour.

The Orange Line’s special buses, in contrast, will run on their own east-west pathway mostly away from other street traffic, and operate as frequently as every five minutes.

And the bus on the connecting route to her job, along Reseda Boulevard, stops every 10 to 15 minutes.

“It’s better for us if we don’t have to wait for buses,” said the mother of three. “Your family is waiting for you.”

But fellow rider Rosalie Linde said she believes the new busway will be no good for people like her.

To use the new system, Linde would first have to take a Balboa Boulevard bus from her Lake Balboa neighborhood, transfer to the Orange Line and then ride the subway to her job as an administrative assistant in the downtown garment district. But she detests the Balboa bus, which runs just once an hour sometimes.

“They don’t connect that well,” Linde said. So although she plans to try the Orange Line once out of curiosity, she said she probably would stick to her usual commute on two regular buses to the subway.

For a transit line to be successful, it must not only be efficient on its own, transportation experts say. Reliable and frequent connecting service is just as important.

“Without a good feeder system, they will not be able to attract a lot of passengers,” said Hiroyuki Iseki, a researcher at UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies.

Anticipating the Orange Line’s public opening Saturday, transportation officials have beefed up some connections at its 13 stops along the 14-mile route between the North Hollywood Metro Red Line subway station and Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

But critics say some of the Orange Line’s connections are inconvenient, requiring too much walking, and that some transfer buses are too infrequent or offer no service at night.

Even minor inconveniences can discourage riders. Research shows that the perception of time spent walking to or waiting for a connection is 50% longer than the actual time.

“The transfer time should be minimum.... People do not want to wait,” said professor Ata Khan, director of the Transportation Research Center at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Knowing that, the MTA has added extra regular bus runs to seven north-south lines connecting to the Orange Line.

On Van Nuys Boulevard, Line 233 -- which used to run every 10 minutes -- is scheduled for every seven minutes. Buses on Topanga Canyon and Balboa boulevards, as well as De Soto, Winnetka, Tampa, Balboa and Whitman avenues, now come every half hour during peak periods instead of up to an hour apart.

The MTA also tinkered with other bus lines to reroute them closer to the Orange Line.

The Red Line subway will also run on a synchronized schedule to make transfers easier.

The city of Los Angeles, which operates DASH neighborhood buses for short trips, will roll out a new all-day, more frequent service to supplement the busway’s western terminus at Warner Center.

“They can hop off the Orange Line and hop on quickly to the DASH to get to their work site,” said Jim Lefton, chief of transit services for the city Department of Transportation.

Planners predict that 80% of Orange Line passengers will arrive by other buses, subway, bicycle or foot. But to accommodate motorists, five parking lots along the way -- at the Pierce College, Reseda, Balboa, Sepulveda and Van Nuys stations -- offer a combined 3,200 spaces.

“This is an effort to provide an integrated net of transportation for the San Fernando Valley,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an MTA board member. “You get on the bus, and off you go.”

The bus-only corridor, which cost $324 million, was built on an old railroad route. It will use extended buses with 57 seats. The MTA estimates that an end-to-end run will take 42 minutes.

MTA executives predict that the Orange Line’s first year of operation will draw about 6,000 riders a day, although critics say that could be a low estimate to temper expectations after projections for the Pasadena Gold Line rail project felt far short two years ago. The MTA estimates that ridership will grow to 22,000 daily passengers over the next 15 years.

Some critics say a few of the line’s connections are awkward.

At the North Hollywood Red Line station, riders must take two escalators to exit and then cross a busy boulevard to transfer to the busway. As recently as two months ago, there was no direct crosswalk between the two stations, requiring a roundabout walk to make the transfer. But officials have since decided to add a direct crosswalk.

The Sepulveda station is about two blocks from the nearest southbound bus stop. The northbound Sepulveda bus is even farther away, and getting there requires crossing two streets.

MTA managers say the station locations and designs helped save money.

At the North Hollywood stop, a pedestrian tunnel between the subway and the busway would have cost more than $10 million, while at Sepulveda, the agency didn’t own enough land closer to the boulevard bus stops for a different solution.

Sometimes, the Orange Line will run when other buses don’t. The busway will open every morning at 4, while some of the connecting services start an hour or two later. The Orange Line’s silver buses will run until 1 a.m. daily. But on some connecters, the last bus leaves before 8 p.m.

According to Michael Brewer, an MTA service development manager, the transit agency can’t afford to run early morning or late night service when there is little or no demand.

In June, the transit agency trimmed service hours from low-ridership bus lines to help fund operation of the Orange Line. The cuts mean some riders have to wait longer for buses and transfer more often.