Beeline’s Route 3 to Remain

The City of Glendale has been working on new routes for their Beeline Bus Line, which includes Route 3 that travels through La Cañada, stopping at Memorial Park and JPL.

The bus travels from the downtown Glendale through Montrose Shopping Park with stops at several areas including La Crescenta Avenue and Honolulu Avenue. The route continues to its end at JPL.

Although the city of La Cañada Flintridge may be looking at changes to its transit system in the future, the city is, for the time being, contracted with Glendale’s Beeline, according to management analyst Carl Alameda.

Amid concerns that the Glendale City Council is planning on changing or perhaps even doing away with Route 3, members of the Montrose Shopping Park invited Jano Baghdanian, Glendale’s traffic transportation administratorm to its monthly meeting Jan. 18. Some concerned senior citizens attended the early morning meeting.

“This [bus line] is our blood line,” said one of the seniors in attendance. “I am a senior citizen and a lot of people depend on this [route].”

According to Baghdanian, the route was in danger of being severely changed or even canceled until his department did another study of ridership.

“We were quite surprised that we saw a steady increase,” Baghdanian said. “So we will be leaving Route 3 alone.”

The only change now planned in the area is from JPL and Montrose to the Glendale Galleria. “If you are going to the Galleria you will need to transfer at Glendale Community College,” Baghdanian said. He estimates the wait between buses at the college stop will be fewer than 10 minutes.

There will be some changes to the bus stops throughout Crescenta Valley, it was reported. Glendale officials have signed a contract with a new company that will offer covered bus stops.

“We won’t put shelters everywhere, but [they will go in] where ridership is increased,” he said.

There are also plans for electronic signage at the stops that will tell riders how long the wait will be for the next bus.

The goal of the transportation department is to have all buses lead to the Metrorail station in Glendale, Baghdanian added. This way they hope to make it easier for commuters to use the rail system, and lessen traffic congestion on the freeways.

There will also be changes in the Beeline system with regards to downtown Glendale. Planners are looking for a new route that can accommodate the new Glendale Town Center.

Baghdanian said that the city would also be looking into more Beeline routes if they are needed due to the La Cañada Town Center that is expected to open in 2008. La Cañada officials are looking into alternative transportation.

“We are looking at various [possible] changes” once the Town Center is completed, La Cañada’s Alameda said.