Council Hires Bus Company to Take Over 12 RTD Lines

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pay a private bus operator to take over service on 12 RTD bus lines, including three in the Valley that were targeted for elimination, and to establish a new line between Burbank, North Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles.

Although the city has experimented with giving Southern California Rapid Transit District lines to private bus operators in recent years, the decision represented the largest number of routes ever awarded to a single operator at one time.

Council members voted unanimously to provide $2.9 million to Laidlaw Transit of Van Nuys, which said it will operate the lines at a rate 37% below the RTD’s costs.

A spokesman for the RTD said the agency had no comment on the council’s action.

The Valley-to-downtown routes are Line 413, originating in North Hollywood and stopping in Van Nuys; Line 419, originating in Chatsworth and stopping in Mission Hills; and Line 423, originating in Westlake Village and stopping in Woodland Hills.

The lines serve 265 people daily, according to the RTD.

When Laidlaw takes over the lines in September, it will also begin a new service, Line 414, running between Burbank, North Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles.

Passengers will see no change in service, although Laidlaw buses will be more comfortable and have a different color scheme, said William L. Johnson, the company’s vice president of operations.

There will be no interruption in service during the changeovers, and routes and schedules will remain the same. Fares will remain the same unless the RTD raises fares for all lines.

More than half the money to operate the lines will come from the federal Urban Mass Transit Administration as part of President Reagan’s push toward privatization of programs traditionally provided by public agencies. The UMTA, seeking to stretch scarce federal transit funds, hopes that private bus lines will operate more efficiently than publicly operated lines.

Partly Financed by Half-Cent Tax

The remainder of the funds will come from a half-cent sales tax increase approved by Los Angeles County voters in 1980 to finance transit projects.

Laidlaw can operate the bus lines more cheaply than the RTD, Johnson said, because “none of us are paid as much” as the RTD’s management and union drivers. Johnson said competition forces Laidlaw to operate more efficiently than the RTD.

Under the agreement approved by the council Wednesday, Laidlaw will receive between $6 million and $7.5 million to provide the commuter bus service over three years, with the possibility of two one-year extensions.

If the bus company can provide the service for less, it can pocket the difference.

Johnson declined to disclose the company’s projected profit.

Councilman Robert Farrell on Wednesday objected that the council was rescuing lines with relatively low ridership instead of spending money to relieve overcrowding on buses in his predominantly low-income district in South-Central Los Angeles.

But he voted for the appropriation after Councilman Michael Woo, chairman of the Transportation and Traffic Committee, said that the RTD could use the money now subsidizing the commuter lines to provide additional service on overcrowded inner-city lines.

In recommending that Laidlaw take over the commuter lines, the city Department of Transportation said the company has provided “excellent service” on a commuter bus line from Encino and downtown.

The department’s general manager, Donald Howery, said in a report to the council that “vehicles are spotless, arrive on time, drivers are courteous and skilled . . . and the public has reacted favorably to a service that has increased from 30 to 130 riders per day since it started in December, 1985.”