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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 April 2012 Vol. 20, No. 04 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, 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 : April 14 and May 19 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- April 2012 — Issue 233

Southern California Transit Advocates 3010 Wilshire #362 Los Angeles, CA 90010 45¢ First 213-388-2364 Class http://www.socata.net Postage [email protected]

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Inside This Issue: Gardena Municipal Bus Lines New Flyer 719 at the • Bulletin Board (pg. 2) corner of Gardena Boulevard and Vermont on • Members in Action (pg.2) April 7, 2012. —Andrew Novak Photo • Transit Updates (pg. 3) • Transit Topics (pg. 5) • Public/Legislative Affairs (pg. 6) ISSN 1525-2892 • 2011 DAT Trip Part 2 (pg. 8) • Upcoming Events (pg. 9) • Photos of the month (pg. 11) Bulletin Board / Members in Action Photos of the Month

Bulletin Board: connection open house at Union Sta- Our thanks to presenters from the Consen- tion. Friedman recently advocated for trash sus Group Denise Guerra and Samantha cans to be placed at the corner of Sunset NICE BUS! Foley from the Los Angeles to Palmdale sec- and Orange Drive, next to Hollywood High tion outreach team and Veronica Yniguez School, which has a bad litter problem At right are Orion’s from the Los Angeles to Anaheim section (partly due to the nearby In-N-Out). The belonging to the outreach team for an informative presenta- city has now responded with trash cans and newly formed Nas- tion on the statewide high speed rail project Alek reports "The intersection looks cleaner sau Inter-County at our March 10th meeting. now". Lastly Friedman's letter "Reasons to Express (NICE) for-

Love the Bergamot Transit Center Project" We are slated to have a booth during the mer known as Long appeared in the LookOut online Santa opening celebration of the Exposition Light Island Bus in New Monica news site (surfsantamonica.com). Rail line phase one on April 28th. That same York. This photo Way to go, Alek! was also taken on day we'll participate in the flea market at the Motor Bus Society Spring Convention in Pat O'Connor and Nate Zablen attended the March 24, 2012. downtown Los Angeles. Thanks to an anony- April 4th meeting of the Metro San Fernando www.nicebus.com mous donor we will have a booth at Fuller- Valley Service Council in Van Nuys ton Railroad Days (May 5-6). And we also and made public comments. -Wayne Doran will be an exhibitor at National Train Day Photo Ken Ruben attended the March 14th meet- May 12th at Union Station. Due to a conflict ing of the Metro Westside/Central Service with the latter event we likely will resched- Council. Ruben and Dana Gabbard attended ule our May meeting for the 3rd Saturday, the March 21st Metro Citizens' Advisory May 19th. Volunteers to assist with the vari- Council meeting. ous booths are welcome - contact the Ex- ecutive Secretary at [email protected] Andrew Novak’s article “35 years of Omni- or (213) 388-2364. trans” appeared in the Fall-Winter 2011issue of the Norcal Express newsletter. The Norcal Our preview tour of Exposition light rail San Francisco MUNI Express is available for free at Phase I will be on Tuesday April 17th, de- Gillig 2805 on the spe- www.norcalbusfans.com parting at 10:00 AM from Platform 1 (Hope cial N Judah Express

Street side) of 7th/Metro station. Please ar- Route in February rive at least a few minutes early. Hold 2012. This route is an Harmless Agreement forms (copies of which express version of the the Executive Secretary will bring) will need N Judah street car to be signed by all participants. Our group is route that operates limited to 20 so regretfully members cannot during peak hours. bring guests. -Mark Strickert Photo Members in Action: Alek Friedman attended the March 29th Westside Subway Extension study community open house/workshop at Beverly

Hills and the March 7th Green Line to LAX

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OCTA Sun Line (Palm Springs) Anaheim Resort Transit AVTA Recently the Orange County Transportation Sun Line will be offering additional service On April 4th, the Anaheim Resort Transit Effective April 1st the Route 1 Express was Authority opened a new access para-transit for the Coachella and Stagecoach Festivals (ART) began two new routes that travel out- cancelled and replaced with new Route 10. training center in Anaheim. The new center during the month of April. On April 14-15, side of Anaheim. The new Route 10 starts at Avenue S and is one of only four in the national and allows 21-22, and 28-29, Line 111 will be operating 47th Street East in Palmdale and ends at the Route 18 runs from Disneyland to Buena passengers with disabilities to learn how to every 20 minutes from 10:00 AM to 6:00 University of Antelope Valley in Lancaster. Park serving downtown Anaheim, Walmart navigate transit in the county in a controlled PM. Before and after these times, regular There are only seven stops on the line which at Euclid, Knott’s Berry Farm, Medieval environment. As part of the new center weekend service will be operated. Direct include the Palmdale Transit Center, the An- Times, Pirates Dinner Adventure, and the OCTA New Flyer 5404 has been placed in- service is not offered to the festivals, taxi telope Valley Courthouse, and Lancaster City California Welcome Center in Buena Park. side as a bus simulator. cabs will be available for hire in the BevMo Park. The service operates hourly and the first bus parking lot at Highway 111 and Depot Drive leaves Disneyland at 7:00 AM and the last in La Quinta. For more information on this bus leaves Buena Park at 9:00 PM. added service visit: http://www.sunline.org/line-111-added- Route 19 runs from Disneyland to the Dis- service- covery Science Center in Santa Ana with a

stop at the Main Place Mall in Santa Ana.

The service operates hourly and the first bus

leaves Disneyland at 8:00 AM and the last

bus leaves Science Center at 10:15 PM.

For more information visit ART at Coaster www.rideart.org For the 2012 San Diego Padres baseball season, Coaster has added some trains that operate during select home games. For Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Wednesday home games that begin at 3:35 On March 12th Big Blue Bus made changes PM, Coaster Train 652 will depart Oceanside to Route 12. The route will no longer oper- at 1:51 PM. For other weekday games that ate on La Cienega Boulevard, Olympic begin at 3:35 PM regular Train 665 may be Boulevard or Robertson Boulevard north of Are you buried in paper? held at San Diego and depart at 7:30 PM in- Pico Boulevard as per a request from the Angels Flight stead of 7:08 PM. For Friday home games LADOT. Route 12 will now start and end Are you interested in getting your Effective March 12th the one-way fare was Train 675 and for all other days Train 699 from Pico Boulevard at South Alfred Street SO.CA.TA newsletter in PDF? increased on Angels Flight to 50¢. Metro will depart 50 minutes after the game/ (one block east of La Cienega) and operate We are now offering the SO.CA.TA pass holders can ride for 25¢. fireworks show. Fridays/Saturdays with on Pico to Robertson where buses will con- newsletter in PDF format to our mem- games at 7:05 PM, the last train departs San tinue on their regular route. The following bers. The PDF newsletters will be Diego at 10:45 PM or 50 minutes after the last out fireworks show, with an absolute de- bus stops will be abandoned: La Cienega at available a week before the meeting parture of midnight. Trains run only for Whitworth, Olympic at La Cienega, Robert- and will be in full color. If you would games will depart 50 minutes after game / son at Olympic, and Robertson at Whitworth like to get the PDF newsletter instead fireworks show with an absolute departure

For more information contact Big Blue Bus of the printed version email us at: time of midnight Monday-Saturday and 5:10 at 310-451-5444 [email protected] PM Sunday. (Continued on Page 4)

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Foothill Transit Metro April 20, 2012 May 5-6, 2012 Effective April 1st the Line 272 bus stop on The Dodger Stadium Express has returned The Victor Valley Transit Authority will be Fullerton Railroad Days returns to Fullerton the corner of Baldwin Park Boulevard and for another season for every home games. dedicating their new facility at 11:00 AM. after a several year hiatus. The event will be Live Oak Avenue, in Baldwin Park, will be Buses will board passengers at Bay 3 of the The new facility is located at located at at the Fullerton Amtrak Station and will be removed due to safety concerns. Passengers Gateway Transit Plaza on the eastside of Un- 17150 Smoketree Street in Hesperia. open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days. will find an alternate bus stop on the corner ion Station. Buses leave Union Station every There will be many displays, vendors, and April 21-22, 2012 of Live Oak and Stewart Avenues. 10 minutes, starting 90 minutes before food options. For more information visit the The San Bernardino History & Railroad Mu- game time through the 3rd inning. Same Southern California Railway Plaza Associa- From April 9th to April 30th, the northbound seum will be hosting the fourth annual rail- day Dodger ticket’s will once again be hon- tion at: www.scrpa.net Line 280 northbound bus stop on the north- road days and steam excursion with former ored as fare on the buses. Standard Metro east corner of Azusa Avenue and Arrow Santa Fe steam locomotive 3751. The event fares also apply to this service. Buses will May 12, 2012 Highway is temporarily closed due to con- at the historic San Bernardino Station will be drop passengers off inside Dodger Stadium National Train Day returns to Los Angeles struction. These will be a temporary bus open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday and behind Center Field. Service will run the Union Station from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. stop located just south of Arrow Highway 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Sunday. The steam same route in reverse after the game. There will be various displays of railroad near the Shakey's restaurant. excursion runs from Los Angeles on Satur- Return service runs until 45 minutes after equipment, model trains, and various or- day and returns on Sunday. For more infor- the final out. ganizations. For more information on the Metrolink mation on railroad days visit: event and to locate other local National Once again Metrolink is operating Angles http://sbrailroaddays.com/ Train Day events visit the website at: Express Trains to all weekday home games or by calling 909-888-3634. For more infor- http://www.nationaltrainday.com that start at 7:05 PM. Special Train 6502 mation on the steam excursion visit: departs Los Angeles Union Station at 5:50 http://sbdepotmuseum.squarespace.com/ PM and Train 643 departs Laguna Niguel at steam-excursion/ June 9, 2012 5:50 PM. New for this year Train 899 will The City of Torrance is holding their annual depart Riverside downtown at 5:01 PM and open house at the city yard. Along with various city vehicles the Torrance Transit buses passengers can transfer to Train 643 at Or- RTA ange Station. Train 6503 to Los Angeles and On March 16, 1977 the Riverside Transit will also be on display. The city yard will be Train 644 to Laguna Niguel will depart 30 Agency began operating with 26 used buses open from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and is lo- minutes after the game ends. Passengers on six Routes that duplicated routes for- cated at 20500 Madrona Avenue in returning to Riverside will need to take Train merly operated by RTD. The agency has Torrance. 644 and transfer to Tran 898 in Orange. On grown over the last 35 years and as part of Friday nights trains will hold at Angel’s Sta- the celebration RTA will be offering a variety dium for 45 minutes after game time for the of special promotions. Visit www.riversidetransit.com fireworks show.

Fares are all roundtrip and $7 for adults, $6 April 27-30, 2012 Senior disabled, $4 for youth ages 6-18, and The Motor Bus Society will be holding its an- free for kids 5 and under with a fare paying nual Spring Convention in Los Angeles. adult. Tours of various bus yards have been ar- ranged. For more information visit the Motor For more information and for train schedules Bus Society: www.motorbussociety.org or visit: www.octa.net/angelsexpress.aspx by emailing Los Angeles Convention Chair- (Continued on Page 10) man Andrew Novak at [email protected]

Page 4 The TRANSIT Advocate www.socata.net Page 9 2011 Day After Thanksgiving Trip Part 2 By Dana Gabbard Transit Topics By Andrew Novak

Continued from the March 2012 issue… ter which we all made our way back to the This month in Transit Topics we have a few and CTA Bus Tracker and Train Tracker are Santa Fe Depot. Around 5:40 PM boarding things you might have missed from the including in the naming rights RFP. By sell- The bus carried minimal passengers at first began; we were guided by Dave Snowden to world of transit. ing naming rights CTA hopes to bring in before starting to fill up by the time we one of the forward cars after cautioning us enough revenue to continue these services. passed the 94/125 interchange and entered Private Passenger Service: At the end of that this would allow us to ride in comfort Lemon Grove, soon passing the old depot March the Florida East Coast Railway an- Detroit Private Bus Service: 25-year old away from the families with noisy toddlers that is now a stop on the Trolley's Orange nounced they are considering starting pas- Detroit, Michigan native and entrepreneur and kids crowding the rear cars. Robert Line. We were surprised to serve the College senger between Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa Andy Didorosi has purchased three buses Meinert had taken the trolley to check out a Grove Shopping Center directly by diverting and Orlando Florida. The railroad has con- and has begun organizing the Detroit Bus local shop and almost missed the train off College Avenue and looping through the sidered starting the service without govern- Company. Didoroshi hopes his private bus back. He had to run and jump across the mall's parking lot (although the stop itself ment subsidy which would make it the first service can help restore some of the service tracks to get on the Surfliner with about 10 was streetside amid an elongated series of privately operated passenger train in the lost after the DDOT made cuts to there ser- seconds to spare. We departed on time at bus stops as a de facto transit interchange United States since the Rio Grande Zephyr vice, mainly night and weekend service. The 5:55 PM (with a very full train) and after an hub). 10 riders got on at the mall stop in- was cancelled in 1983. This proposed ser- Detroit Bus Company hopes to start in late uneventful trip arrived at Union Station at cluding two wheelchair users. Only to have vice will defiantly be worth following. April. 9:00 PM. the bulk of the ridership get off when we Greyhound Moves Station: Recently Grey- reached the intersection of College and Uni- My thanks to Dave Snowden for some help- hound moved their Santa Barbara bus sta- versity Avenues. Four more got off at El ful suggestion that helped augment the final tion from downtown, next to the MTD Termi- Cajon Blvd. At 12:47 PM we reached the portion of the report. One thing I'll comment nal, into the former Railway Express building SDSU transit center. on is the marked prevalence of 7-11s adja- adjacent to the Amtrak station. This move cent to San Diego Trolley stops (especially in For lunch we availed ourselves of a Chipotle came after Greyhound lost their lease in the downtown). All in all it was a fun day. So, outlet adjacent to the transit center. Around classic bus terminal in downtown. When what should we do for DAT 2012? this time an auto was spotted driving ACES Express ends: After three years the moving Greyhound opted not to take the through the bus center sporting a Veolia luxury passenger train service operated be- historic “BUS” sign off the roof of the build- logo (maybe a supervisor checking up?). tween New York City and Atlantic City ing instead they plan to scrap the classic Also Dave Snowden rejoined us. It was de- known as the ACES express was cancelled sign to protect their trademark. Offers were cided since we were at a Trolley stop instead earlier this year. The service which was made to several local groups, but Grey- of riding the final bus in the itinerary (MTS funded by several casino’s never drew the hound determined none we deemed accept- Line 955) we'd finish the day riding on the ridership that was anticipated and from all able. (My thanks to Ken Ruben for bringing rails. We took an elevator down to the un- estimates never turned a profit. (One won- this story to my attention.) derground SDSU trolley station and after a ders if this is what will eventually happen to short wait caught a Green Line low floor any of the proposed Los Angeles to Las Ve- train. gas luxury trains if they ever get started.

-Editors Note) At Old Town we transferred to a Blue Line high floor vehicle and after passing through CTA naming rights: The Chicago Transit downtown continued south to 24th Street Authority (CTA) has recently issues Request station where some of our party deboarded for Proposals (RFP) for naming rights for and took a short walk to the rail museum at several of the agencies icon special services. the historic National City Depot. Others con- The CTA Holiday Train, New Year’s Eve tinued to San Ysidro before coming north Penny Rides, Free Rides for Chicago Public and linking up with the rest of the group af- Schools students on the first day of school,

Page 8 The TRANSIT Advocate www.socata.net Page 5 Public and Legislative Affairs By Dana Gabbard Public and Legislative Affairs Continued

Usually legislators don't want to overly med- who pulled over his crowded bus at the next I'll conclude by noting three folks taking new positions in the world of transportation dle with local governance issues. But As- stop and found the missing purse. Later that policy: semblyman Das Williams has authored a bill day, the purse was returned to its owner Moorpark City Council member Keith Millhouse, has been elected chairman of the Trans- (AB 1778) that has the electeds of Ventura with its contents intact. To show her grati- portation Committee of the Southern California Association of Governments. County up in arms. What is Williams great tude, the customer sent her hero coach op- Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (who already sits on the California Transportation Commission) sin? Pressuring local jurisdictions to spend erator a hand-written thank you note. As a has been nominated by the President to be on the Amtrak Board. Transportation Development Act funds on bonus, she also enclosed a $50 reward. transit instead of road repair ("Local officials A new report shows RTA buses handled Dr. Raymond W. Wolfe has been appointed the new Executive Director of the San Bernar- balk at bill to require them to spend more more than 758,000 boarding's in February, dino Associated Governments. on transit" Ventura County Star March a 15 percent increase from February of last Good luck to all three in their new roles! 27th). Williams says he'll compromise IF a year. Ridership on CommuterLink express countywide transit plan with teeth is offered routes was up 23 percent and Dial-A-Ride by the locals. This disagreement could get a boarding's climbed 25 percent. Using Metro’s Nextrip text message service bit ugly. RTA CEO Larry Rubio has been named Man- Recently I had a change to try Metro’s In other legislation of note, SB 1225 and AB ager of the Year for 2011 by the California 1779 are dedicated to having the admini- Nextrip text message service while on a Transportation Foundation. stration of (respectively) the Surfliner and bus excursion. The stop was at the cor- San Joaquin intercity rail lines turned over For some time I have been keeping track of ner of Eastern and Ramona near Cal to a collection of local agencies in the corri- the fate of the original Nippon Sharyo Metro State LA and several of us were waiting dors much like the Capitol Joint Power Au- Blue Line cars and whether they would be for the eastbound Line 70. thority which has existed for over 10 years. getting the mid-life rebuild that is industry Both bills have hearings in mid-April and ap- standard after running urban rail cars for 20 Using my cell phone I texted the Metro years. It now appears Metro intends to re- pear to be gaining consensus among stake- stop number to 41411 and in a matter place them with the new cars they are cur- holders. The intent is better service and co- of seconds I got a second text asking ordination among overlapping services. rently procuring. Wonder if any peer agencies buy them and do the rebuilds. They are which of the four lines that stopped Here are some tidbits from the latest RTA quite sturdy and probably could operate at there I wanted to know the schedule of. Reader e-newsletter: I replied with my choice and the next least another 15 years if given a thorough RTA Board members formally recog- rehabilitation. approximate arrival time of Line 70 was nized Coach Operator Paul Charles for his Exaggeration of the month: First Transit in sent to me. The bus showed up in less service on March 6th when he helped re- its publication “Contracting Transit: An Inno- then the time advertised, but is was a unite a worried customer with her lost vative Solution” claims North County Transit nice that the service did work. purse. The Riverside resident boarded Route District Saves $10 Million Annually After 20 in downtown Riverside headed to Food 4 Contracting with First Transit. The Watchdog I have also used the similar service that Less. Inside her purse, she carried $767 in columnist of the UT in San Diego concluded OCTA has which will provide the next cash that she intended to spend at the store the actual figure is one million a year-opps! three scheduled departure times. At and deposit the rest in her bank. When she ("Bus privatizing savings not as touted" UT right is the sign at Eastern and Ramona. got off the bus, and realized that she left it April 3, 2012). on board, the woman called RTA’s Customer Information Center and reported the missing (Andrew Novak Photo) (Continued on Page 7) item. RTA dispatchers contacted Charles

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Page 6 The TRANSIT Advocate www.socata.net Page 7 2011 Day After Thanksgiving Trip Part 2 By Dana Gabbard Transit Topics By Andrew Novak

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