Inside This Issue . • Executive Staff Framework • Head Start Songwriter • Schedule Checkers Computerized • Lottery Winner RTD • COMTO Highlights • APTA '85 Centerfold Volume 13 Number 12 December 1985 • Director Nate Holden Private Firm Provides District Employees Plan Service on Lines 602, 605 Christmas For Skidrow Kids The last day of service for Line 602, the entertainment-oriented trip makers. Downtown Miniride, took place on The District's development and opera- Saturday, October 26, 1985. A private tion of this service accomplished all of bus company took over the service the intended objectives. The two-year beginning Monday, October 28, 1985: planning period which preceded the The new service, known as DASH, is start of service in October, 1971, gen- offered by Diversified Paratransit, Inc. erated tremendous interest among a The company has a three-year con- wide variety of constituent groups tract to operate the service, with the including downtown businesses and route, schedule and service reliability all public agencies interested in and quality standards specified by the improved public transportation City of Los Angeles through a service throughout the region. contract. Within the first two months of the start of service, ridership quickly The City, in partnership with the climbed to 4,000 weekday riders. At Los Angeles County Transportation that time, the route consisted of a sin- Commission (LACTC), purchased the gle north-south, one-way loop about vehicles for the company using Propo- 5.5 miles in length. The maximum sition A funds. Eighty percent of the extent of service and highest ridership net operating costs of the service will occurred during the time there were also be funded from this City/LACTC two separate routes in operation. Dur- source, along with a 20 percent contri- ing 1975, and through June, 1976, bution from the Los Angeles Commu- ridership peaked out at an average of nity Redevelopment Agency (CRA). more than 10,000 boardings per week- Employee Activities Coordinator Diane Delaney intends to share her toys with skidrow kids at Christmas. She invites you to do the same. T'was the month before Christmas and all are invited to attend. At that and three District employees got time, they and others want to give together in the pre-season spirit to each child three toys and one bag of discuss the street people around the groceries to families. District employ- Headquarters Building. Day in, day ees willing to donate, are asked to out, these three had seen the bag bring canned goods and new or ladies, the vagrants, and various other slightly used toys. The collection site homeless of Main Street and the sur- for canned goods and toys is the rounding environs who occupy the Employee Activities Office. All toys area long past the eight hours of any of and canned goods should be received our shifts. by Employee Activities no later than The three, Employee Activities December 13 for delivery to the mis- Coordinator Diane Delaney, General sion by December 16. Services Director Anita Allen, and Checks and cash contributions Advertising Manager Connie Ward will be gratefully accepted. Each decided to bring Christmas to the donor will receive a receipt for his/her homeless, thus, the Skid Row Mission tax-deductible contribution. Project was born. Specifically, they The Employee Activities Depart- wanted to find a mission that offered ment, which purchased stuffed ani- photo by Downtown News aid to homeless children and their mals for their Christmas sale, will Mayor Tom Bradley at the transfer of service from the RTD Miniride Line 602 in down- families. They found one on the cor- donate some to the children. town Los Angeles to the DASH system offered by the private business concern of Diver- ner of 5th and Towne Streets. To fulfill District employees who are sified Paratransit, Inc. their Christmas commitment to the interested in contributing their time Dan Miller, operations staff day. Total route length for the two homeless Delaney, Allen, and Ward should contact Diane Delaney at superintendent, notes that while he routes amounted to about 12 miles of will need help, lots of help. A party extension 6675, Anita Allen at exten- was in the Planning Department, the one-way route miles. A six-minute has been planned at the mission on sion 6107, or Connie Ward at exten- .011111111. downtown minibus was one of his noon peak period service was pro- December 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. sion 6363. assigned planning projects from its vided which required 25 buses in serv- inception. Miller stated that, 'All Dis- ice. By way of comparison, since the trict employees, starting, of course, last route change in 1979, the single with all the bus operators and shuttle bus route consisted of 8.4 mechanics who had a hand in operat- miles of one-way route miles. The Time for Open Enrollment! ing this important high visibility serv- noon peak period service continued ice, can be justly proud. By the end of with a six-minute headway which December is open enrollment month plan. The last day possible to change October when the City took over the required 12 buses in service. In the last for UTU, BRAC, and Non-Contract enrollment is December 27, 1985. service, the District had carried several years, ridership had declined employees. This opportunity enables approximately 18,685,000 passen- to about 4,000 boardings per weekday. employees to switch medical and den- Ann Sillifant of the SCRTD- gers!' It was exactly 15 years and 1 tal coverages. ATU recently completed BRAC Health and Welfare Trust Fund, week since the service was inaugu- Innovative Vehicles open enrollment. For Non-Contract will be in the cafeteria at 425 South rated in October, 1971, by the time the The original vehicles were manufac- employees open enrollment meet- Main Street between Christmas day last Line 602 run on Saturday pulled tured by Minibus Incorporated, ings, which last one hour, will be held and New Year's Day to assist BRAC into Division 3. located in Pico Rivera. This trade in the Board Room at the Headquar- members who wish to change plans. History of Minibus Service name quickly became a generic name ters Building on December 4 and 11 at Exact dates and times will be posted Line 602 was intended to provide to describe any small bus. The vehi- 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on both on District bulletin boards prior to that improved circulation and distribution cles, built on a recreational vehicle days. time. Bob Schneider, Administrator of transportation within downtown Los frame, are only 20 feet long. While Non-Contract employees should the UTU-SCRTD Health and Insur- Angeles. The service was targeted for immensely popular, due to their cute attend the open enrollment meetings ance Trust Fund, will have trained the non-transit dependent popula- look, they proved to be very difficult because the recent changes in the All- representatives at each operating divi- tion, consisting of downtown employ- to maintain because they were not state plan will be reviewed and there sion to assist members who wish to ees, shoppers, and recreation/ Continued on Page 3 are minor changes in the CIGNA change plans. Page 2 Headway Executive Staff Meets with a Mission For three days in October, District "The end result of our work Executive Staff attended a manage- should appear in the form of a pro- ment retreat. Facilitated by Alinda curement manual and a procedures Burke-Page, representing the man- statement that ensures smooth inte- agement consulting firm of Transac- gration and avoids fragmentation7 tion, Inc., the 40-member group said Richeson. developed a document entitled the "RTD Framework Paper." The Frame- Nodding in agreement, Assist- work Paper is described by Assistant ant General Manager for Operations General Manager - Management John Robert Korach added, "With 9,000 W. Richeson as a redefinition of the people currently employed in bus mission, purpose, and goals of the operation, you don't want the intro- District. duction of rail to make it appear as if The procedures used by Transac- the tail is wagging the dog." tion, Inc. are a unique set of processes that spring from an organizational as The Outlook well as a psychological background. Richeson believes the energy and Richeson stated the most unusual enthusiasm generated by the Execu- technique used to elicit the Frame- The indoor subcommittee of the Headquarters Improvement Team consider 90-day tive Staff as a result of the retreat pre- work Paper was the process known as improvements. From left to right: District Secretary Helen Bolen, Architect Tobi dicts success. "Our initial benefit was guided imagery. "Olympic athletes Hernandez, Chief Engineer Phillip Meyers, Facilities Maintenance Director Ed Walsh, getting such a large group to reach have been encouraged to use this exer- and Facilities Maintenance Superintendent Frank Nelson. consensus on what should be going cise whereby they mentally picture on at the RTD. Second, once the mis- themselves achieving their goal," he Signage identifying the front of the grams, the subcommittee seeks to sion is defined and we have the expe- said. Headquarters Building will be the reach a goal of reducing absenteeism rience of accomplishing the set goals The Framework Paper is written slightly raised lettering of RTD and in the Maintenance Department by 10 within a fixed timeframe, it becomes a like a picture of things as if every prob- the logo placed above the building's percent below the current level. matter of habit." lem with the District had been solved. grillwork. The side of the building will The follow-on portion to this mission also exhibit the signage and logo.