Pact to Lease Buses Approved

The Foothill Transit Zone this week approved a $5.5-million lease agreement for 30 new buses, which will allow the agency to add three lines in the San Gabriel Valley by mid-1989.

The bus purchase, to be made on a lease-purchase option from Gillig Bus Co., will be underwritten by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. The commission gave approval in 1987 for Foothill to eventually take over service on 20 Southern California Rapid Transit District lines within three years.

Since late last year, Foothill Transit buses have been doing standing-room-only service on two former RTD park-and-ride routes from the eastern San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles.

At the Monday meeting, the zone also approved a $75,294 annual contract with Foothill Executive Director William P. Forsythe, the county consultant who helped bring the zone into being.

Trial is slated to begin in May in Los Angeles Superior Court on a lawsuit brought by RTD drivers and mechanics, challenging Foothill’s existence. The union says Foothill Transit threatens RTD jobs and represents an illegal breakup of the massive transit operator.