How to join SO.CA.TA: Yearly dues are $30.00 cates. In all other cases, permission must be ($12.00 low income). Dues are prorated on a secured from the copyright holder. THE TRANSIT ADVOCATE quarterly basis. Disclaimer: The Southern California Transit Submission of materials: ALL materials for the Advocates is not affiliated with any governmental Newsletter of the Southern California Transit Advocates TRANSIT ADVOCATE newsletter go to Andrew agency or transportation provider. Names and July 2013 Vol. 21, No. 7 Novak at P.O. Box 2383, Downey California 90242 logos of agencies appear for information and or to [email protected]. Please enclose a self reference purposes only. addressed stamped envelope for returns. SO.CA.TA officers, 2013 Newsletter deadlines are the Fridays a week President: Nate Zablen before SO.CA.TA meetings, at 6:00 PM Pacific Vice President: Kent Landfield time, unless otherwise announced. Recording Secretary: Edmund Buckley Executive Secretary: Dana Gabbard Opinions: Unless clearly marked as "Editorial" or Treasurer: Dave Snowden "Position Paper", all written material within, Directors at Large: Ken Ruben including all inserted flyers and postcards, are the J.K. Drummond expressed opinions of the authors and not Craig Weingarten necessarily that of the Southern California Transit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Advocates. Newsletter Editor: Andrew Novak Newsletter Prod. Mgr: Dana Gabbard Copyright: © 2013 Southern California Transit Webmaster: Charles Hobbs Advocates. Permission is freely granted to repro- th th duce/reprint ORIGINAL articles from the Transit NEXT SO.CA.TA MEETINGS : July 13 and Aug 10 at Angelus Plaza, 4th Floor, 255 S. Hill, Los Angeles Advocate, provided credit is given to both the au- thor and the Southern California Transit Advo- July 2013 — Issue 248 Southern California Transit Advocates 3010 Wilshire #362 Los Angeles, CA 90010 46¢ First 213.388.2364 Class http://www.socata.net Postage [email protected] FIRST CLASS MAIL Inside This Issue: Municipal Area Express (MAX) RE 530 at the Avia- • Bulletin Board (pg. 2) tion Green Line Station on February 11, 2005. MAX service was canceled on June 30, 2013. • Members in Action (pg.2) • Transit Updates (pg. 3) —Andrew Novak Photo • Transit Topics (pg. 5) ISSN 1525-2892 • Public/Legislative Affairs (pg. 6) • In Memory (pg. 7) • Photos of the month (pg. 11) Bulletin Board / Members in Action Photos of the Month Production Update: Both the FMCSA and FRA apps are free to The deadline for the September Issue of the smart phone users. Transit Advocate will be Sunday August 25th Members in Action: due to my travel plans. Please have all ma- Mark Strickert attended the Morongo Basin terial in on or before that date. We will men- Transit Authority (MBTA) board meeting on tion this change again in our August issue. th June 27 . Noteworthy items from the meet- Bulletin Board: ing include a possible fare increase (first Our July 13th guest speaker will be Diana since 1999), Sunday service on Route 1 and Sun Line New Flyer Kotler, Executive Director at Anaheim Trans- possible re-route of Route 3 to serve a new 575 at the down- portation Network. We also anticipate hav- casino in 29 Palms. town Riverside ing a bylaws committee meeting, likely at Metrolink Station on Erik Griswold was quoted extensively in 11:00 AM in the 4th floor meeting space at th June 21, 2013. David Allen’s June 29 column for the Inland Angelus Plaza where the monthly meetings Empire Daily bulletin “Gold Line train plans —Mark Strickert are held. Photo are derailed.” The Railway Supply Institute, a trade group, Ken Ruben attended the Metro Westside/ has announced the formation of a Passenger Central Service Council meeting on June Rail Committee to advocate on legislation 12th, the Los Angeles - San Diego - San Luis and regulations impacting railway suppliers Obispo Rail Corridor Agency Joint Powers who provide equipment and services to high Board meeting on June 19th and the Metro speed and intercity passenger rail -- Citizens’ Advisory Council Meeting on June http://rsiweb.org/ th 26 . From the App Store: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admini- stration (FMCSA) has a new app people can download for their smart phones called Saf- erBus. This app providers the public an effi- cient way to view and access the safety per- City of Commerce formance of commercial motor carriers in- New Flyer 340 at the cluding motor coach and bus companies. Commerce Metrolink The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Are you interested in getting your Station in June 2013. also has a new app called the Rail Crossing SO.CA.TA newsletter in PDF? Locator. This app allows smart phone users We now offer the SO.CA.TA newsletter in —William Braden Photo to access the highway-rail grade crossing PDF format to our members. The PDF database and map features. They can also newsletters are available a week before locate grade crossing by USDOT Crossing the meeting and are in full color. If you ID, address or geo-location. The FRA app would like to get the PDF newsletter in- also allows users to access a variety of infor- stead of the printed version email us at: mation about the grade crossing including [email protected] accident and safety statistics. Page 2 The TRANSIT Advocate www.socata.net Page 11 Transit Updates Continued Transit Updates Thousand Oaks Transit (TOT) Rapid 12: All trips will serve the new tempo- City of Bell -Routes 4 and 9: Weekday buses bound for From June 18th to August 22nd, TOT will be rary transit center. Effective July 12th a new fixed route service Santa Monica (Civic Center) now use the operating special summer beach bus service will begin in the City of Bell. The line is a weekend routing. Buses traveling Culver City Bus Lines 6 and Rapid 6 now from Thousand Oaks to Zuma Beach. This one-way loop that operates on several ma- southbound on 4th Street now make a right utilize the northbound bus stop at Westwood special service operates on Tuesday, jor streets in Bell with service to the Cudahy on Colorado Avenue, left on Main Street, left Medical Plaza as the ending point for Wednesday, and Thursday (no service on Park on Clara Street and the Bicycle Casino on Olympic Boulevard to Avenida Mazatlan. northbound trips and the starting point for July 4th) and there are two trips to the beach in Bell Gardens. This new service will oper- -Route 6: Has been suspended for the sum- southbound trips. Bus stops at Westwood/ and two trips from the beach. Fares are ate from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday mer and will resume on Monday August 26th. Strathmore and southbound Westwood $5.00 round-trip and can be paid on the through Friday and from 11:00 AM to 5:00 -Route 7: On weekdays service will now op- Medical Plaza will be closed throughout the bus. Tickets for this service can be pur- PM on Saturdays. A trip on the route is ex- erate every 12 minutes during peak hours. construction period. chased ahead of time at the TOT Transit pected to take 40 minutes and fares will be -Rapid 7: The bus stop at the Rimpau Tran- Center. For more information contact TOT at VVTA 25¢ per passenger. For more information sit Center will no longer be utilized in both 805.375.5473 or online at: Effective July 1st the BV Link Service will no contact City of Bell at 323.773.1596 or directions. Westbound passengers now www.totransit.org longer stop at Fort Irwin. Passengers going online at: www.cityofbell.org board at Pico Boulevard at Mullen Avenue to/from Fort Irwin can still use the NTC and eastbound passengers now board at Big Blue Bus Commuter route. th Pico Boulevard at San Vicente Boulevard. Effective June 16 Santa Monica Big Blue The service will now operate every 12 min- Bus made the following service changes. utes during peak hours. -Route 1: The weekday trip from Venice and -Rapid 10: The SC Express trip at 6:30 AM Walgrove at 9:54 AM has been canceled. from Union Station has been suspended for -Routes 2 and 3: The northbound bus stop th the summer. at 4 Street and Civic Center Way (mid- -Route 12: The northbound trips departing block) has been removed. Passengers can Robertson and Venice at 7:45 AM, 7:59 AM, UCLA Ackerman Terminal th now board at 4 Street and Pico Boulevard. 9:17 AM, and 9:32 AM on weekdays have Effective July 8th the Ackerman Terminal on Willowbrook Shuttle -Route 3: For the summer only, trips have been cancelled. the UCLA Campus will be closed for approxi- Starting July 1st the Willowbrook Shuttle been added from Santa Monica to the Green -Rapid 12: A new northbound trip has been mately three years for construction of a new Route A became a point to point line instead Line Station, Thursday through Sunday. Two added departing Robertson and Venice at conference center and all buses that serve of a loop. The route will continue to operate weekday southbound trips have been can- 3:18 PM. Ackerman will be re-routed. hourly. Route B has also had some minor celled, the 3:23 PM trip from 4th Street at -Sunset Ride: Service now operates every route modifications. The span of service on Civic Center Way and 5:09 PM trip from Ari- Big Blue Bus will be using a temporary tran- th 30 minutes from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM. both routes remains the same. sit center on Charles E. Young Drive be- zona Avenue at 5 Street.