Encino to Downtown for Less Than RTD : Private Bus Service Ready to Roll

A new, privately operated commuter bus service with lower fares than those charged by the Southern California Rapid Transit District was unveiled Thursday in Encino.

Los Angeles city officials showed off a bus that will be used by the L. A. Commuter Express and said that, if successful, the service could be extended throughout the region.

On Monday, the line will begin offering three round trips each weekday between Encino and downtown Los Angeles.

The rush-hour service will cost $1.75 each way or $65 for a monthly pass. The RTD offers a downtown express service from Northridge and Van Nuys for $2.25 each way or $80 a month, and from Woodland Hills and Canoga Park for $2.60 each way or $92 a month.

The line will be operated for three years by Van Nuys-based Laidlaw Transit Inc. for $260,000 annually.

The City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission have agreed to each pay 30% of the cost. The remaining 40% is expected to come from fares. The RTD gets 28% of its operating costs from fares, said spokesman Ray Garcia.

The new line will provide “much-needed competition in transit operations in the city,” said Donald Howery, general manager of the city Department of Transportation.

Nick Patsaouras, president of the RTD board of directors, said he welcomes the new service as a “step toward the privatization of bus service, which we feel is appropriate in some cases. We don’t see it as a threat to the RTD.”

He said the RTD, facing the possibility of cutbacks in federal subsidies, does not expect to expand its service in the foreseeable future.

Patsaouras said the RTD board is considering the elimination or reduction of service on 51 bus routes and an increase in the basic fare, now 85 cents, to 90 or 95 cents.

Norman H. Emerson, an RTD board member from the San Fernando Valley, said the new line will “test the assumption that a private firm can operate at a lower cost than the RTD,” which he described as burdened with a “large bus fleet and a large bureaucracy.”

To pay their shares, both the city and the county transportation commission are using their part of proceeds from the extra half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in 1982.

Howery said that, if the Encino line catches on, it will be continued. Eventually, “the city and the county together might take over many or all” commuter express lines, he said.

He predicted that future lines also would be operated by private firms, adding “We’re not interested in sending our money over to the RTD.”

William Johnson, a Laidlaw vice president, said the firm can offer service more cheaply than the RTD can because “we are constantly involved in competitive bidding, and that forces us to keep our overhead down.”

He said Laidlaw drivers are represented by the Teamsters Union, “but I think our labor contracts are more favorable” than the RTD’s contract with the United Transportation Union.

Using new, 49-passenger buses, the service will operate between the city park-and-ride lot at Magnolia Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue and six downtown intersections.

Buses will leave Encino at 6 a.m., 6:45 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Buses will depart downtown at 4:15 p.m., 5 p.m. and 5:45 p.m.