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. quarterly basis. Disclaimer: The Southern California Transit THE TRANSIT ADVOCATE Submission of materials: ALL materials for the Advocates is not affiliated with any governmental TRANSIT ADVOCATE newsletter go to Andrew agency or transportation provider. Names and Newsletter of the Southern California Transit Advocates 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. January 2012 Vol. 20, No. 01 ISSN 1525-2892 addressed stamped envelope for returns. SO.CA.TA officers, 2012 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 Joe Dunn necessarily that of the Southern California Transit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Advocates. Newsletter Editor: Andrew Novak Newsletter Prod. Mgr: Dana Gabbard Copyright: © 2012 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 : Jan 14 and Feb 11 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- January 2012 — Issue 230 Southern California Transit Advocates 3010 Wilshire #362 Los Angeles, CA 90010 44¢ First 213-388-2364 Class http://www.socata.net Postage [email protected] FIRST CLASS MAIL Inside This Issue: Santa Monica New Flyer 4075 wearing a holiday • Bulletin Board (pg. 2) wrap on December 25, 2011. • Members in Action (pg.2) —Russ Jones Photo • Transit Updates (pg. 3) • Transit Topics (pg. 5) • Public/Legislative Affairs (pg. 6) • Photos of the month (pg. 10) Bulletin Board / Members in Action Photos of the Month Bulletin Board: now Joe Dunn also is regularly attending Former San Our January speaker is Rolando Cruz, Ex- them. Mr. Drummond also had a letter in Diego Transit ecutive Director and Vice-President for Main- the Christmas issue of the Daily Breeze 517 in Niles, tenance and Facilities at Long Beach Transit, "MTA ignoring the South Bay", noting the California op- discussing asset management. The meeting need for ticket machines at the Park and erating on the begins at 1:00 PM with the speaker sched- Ride lot at the end of the Harbor (110) Tran- Niles Coach uled for 2:15 PM. sitway. Lines. The bus was operating Ken Ruben attended the Los Angeles-San December 10th we had our annual holiday on a special Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Board banquet at Taix. Attendees included Chaffee shuttle from meeting on December 14th and its Technical Yiu and his wife, Andrew Novak, Edmund the Niles Can- Advisory Committee meeting December 8th. Buckley, Dave Snowden, Dana Gabbard, yon Railway He also spoke at the Metro Westside/Central Perias Pillay, Mark Strickert & his wife “Train of Service Council meeting on December 14th. Nancy, Juanita Dellomes & two guests, Lights.” This Robert Meinert, Joe Dunn, Eugene Salinsky, Andrew Novak was on the Pacific Railroad bus is owned Charles Powell, Ken Ruben, Kirk Schneider, Society excursion on December 18th to San by the Pacific Pat O'Connor, Hank Fung, Jane Reifer, Nate Luis Obispo. Nick Matonak was also on the Bus Museum Zablen, Adrian Mandese and Josh Thurman. trip and Ken Ruben joined the excursion in The goodies and door prizes were donated -Richard Silagi Van Nuys on the return trip. Photo by Steve Crosmer, Chaffee Yiu, Dana Gab- bard, GET, Culver CityBus, Torrance Transit, Foothill, RTA, Omnitrans, MTD, Gold Line Are you buried in paper? Authority and Gardena. A big thanks to An- Are you interested in getting your SO.CA.TA drew Novak for handling the trinket receipt newsletter in PDF? and bagging. We are now offering the SO.CA.TA newslet- Dana Gabbard is a regular contributor to ter in PDF format to our members. The PDF Torrance L.A. Streetsblog and links to his posts can newsletters will be available a week before Transit Gillig be found at http://la.streetsblog.org/author/ the meeting and will be in full color. If you 464 decorated dana-gabbard/ would like to get the PDF newsletter instead for the holi- of the printed version email us at: Members in Action: days. [email protected] Alek Friedman was quoted in the Transpor- -Torrance tation for America press release "Public Transit Photo transportation ridership continues to grow; via Facebook agencies continue to raise fares and cut ser- vice" and his artwork was the impetus for the L.A. Streetsblog post "Is It Time for Metro Rail to Get a Face Lift?" For the past few years J.K. Drummond has attended the Metro South Bay Service Coun- cil meetings on a regular basis. We note that Page 2 The TRANSIT Advocate www.socata.net Page 11 Photos of the Month Transit Updates Coach America LADOT - DASH On January 3rd one of the nation’s largest Effective January 9th DASH Wilmington be- Once again the New tour and charter bus companies, Coach gan serving the Boys and Girls Club at the York MTA operated America, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy corner of Figueroa and Q Streets. This new several of their vintage protection. Coach America has a large pres- service operates Monday through Friday buses during the holi- ence in southern California operating the from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Below is a map of the days on various routes. LAX Flyaway service, several Amtrak Califor- new routing. Here we see Flxible nia contracts, and most recently one of the New Look 7340 on the M42 on December 14, LADOT Commuter Express contracts. Coach 2011. These buses op- America is continuing to operate all services erate between the during the bankruptcy proceedings. For regularly scheduled more information visit: buses. www.coachamerica.com/restructure/ www.bmcgroup.com/coachamerica -Wayne Doran Photo LADOT - Commuter Express Recently LADOT posted an artist rendition of what the Encino Park-n-Ride lot will look like after the improvements are completed. The agency ensures riders that the new lot will be well worth the wait and inconvenience of the construction. Below is LADOT artist ren- Caltrans/Metrolink dition of the remodeled parking lot. Temple City Recently Caltrans has added Metrolink and Dial-A-Ride ve- Amtrak travel times and departure informa- hicle 0703 in tion from Orange County to Los Angeles. front of the K- There is one freeway message board on Mart in Temple westbound State Route 91 that displays City on January 6, 2012. travel times and departure information for trains from Fullerton. A second message -Andrew Novak sign on northbound Interstate 5 displays in- Photo formation for trains from Anaheim. The train travel times are displayed on weekdays along with the freeway travel times. Cal- trans displays similar train travel times on US 101 in the San Francisco Bay Area for Caltrain peninsula commuter service. (Continued on Page 4) Page 10 The TRANSIT Advocate www.socata.net Page 3 Transit Updates Continued Transit Updates Continued Metrolink Riverside Line (Weekdays) RTA continued San Diego Vintage Trolley Effective January 9th Metrolink has made Train 408 will depart Los Angeles 2 minutes Finally RTA anticipates an end to the detour Recently the San Diego Vintage Trolley has several changes to their schedules in con- later. routing on Magnolia Avenue between Central started operating on Tuesdays and Thurs- junction with Amtrak Service changes. Be- and Jurupa Avenues for Routes 1, 13, and days from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Previously Orange County Line (Weekends) low is a summary of the changes Metrolink 15. Rider alerts will be posted on the buses. the special service ran only on Saturday and Train 661 will depart Oceanside earlier. has made. Changes to the weekend trains Sundays. The service continues to operate Train 663 will depart Laguna Niguel earlier. For more information call 951-565-5002 or will occur on January 14th. on weekends from 11:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Train 664 will depart Los Angeles earlier. visit: www.riversidetransit.com Metrolink has modified the San Bernardino For more information visit: Inland Empire/Orange County (Weekends) Santa Clarita Transit line schedules to improve reliability for some www.sdvintagetrolley.com Train 860 will depart Oceanside earlier Effective January 9th Santa Clarita made of the reverse afternoon trains from San Schedule time have been changed for Train several changes to better meet passenger Bernardino. Train 337 will now connect with 859 at San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente demand on their commuter routes. Below is Train 223. and Oceanside. a list of those changes. Orange County Line (Weekdays) For details and more information call Metro- Route 795: The 6:57 PM trip departing Trains 600 and 602 will arrive at Oceanside link at 800-371-LINK or visit Santa Clarita Metrolink station has been later. www.metrolinktrains.com discontinued. Train 609 will arrive in Los Angeles later. Route 795: The 3:43 AM trip departing Lan- Inland Empire/Orange County (Weekdays) caster Metrolink station has been discontin- Trains 808 and 850 will depart Oceanside ued. Thruway Bus Service (Amtrak California) later and Train 850 will have an improved In December 2011 Amtrak California added connection to Coaster service.