MAX Plans to Shift El Segundo Routes

Routes will be altered on MAX, the Municipal Area Express transit system that has been transporting commuters to aerospace companies in and around El Segundo for the last eight months.

MAX officials say they hope the changes, effective Dec. 17, will continue the system’s steady increase in riders. MAX is reporting an average of 2,495 riders boarding weekly, or 300 more than expected.

“It’s possible that recent fuel prices have encouraged people to ride the bus,” said John E. Wills, MAX program administrative assistant. Better marketing and commuters’ desire to “ease up morning stress a little bit” could also be helping the system, he said.

The MAX line serving the South Bay beach cities will be rerouted in the El Segundo area and lengthened southward. Planners say the change is expected to more than double the number of passengers on the beach cities line, or Line 1, where ridership has lagged behind that of the other two lines of the 8-month-old bus system.

As Line 1 buses approach the aerospace companies, they will stop first at the TRW complex near Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Aviation Boulevard. The 25-seat white-and-blue buses then will continue north to serve other companies.

At the other end of Line 1, a new park-and-ride lot is being added at the Riviera United Methodist Church at Palos Verdes Boulevard and Calle Miramar in Torrance. The lot will serve as the southern terminus of Line 1, which currently ends farther north at Catalina Avenue and Avenue I.

The lot may attract more commuters from the western part of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Wills said.

MAX planners are also extending the Torrance-San Pedro route, or Line 3, to serve the U.S. Air Force housing complex near Western Avenue and 25th Street. The Air Force and the city of Los Angeles requested the change to transport people who live in the complex and work in El Segundo, MAX officials said.

In addition, buses on all three MAX lines will now make stops closer to the Hughes Radar Systems Group and Space and Communications Group buildings at Sepulveda Boulevard and Imperial Highway.

MAX is a joint project of nine South Bay cities and Los Angeles County. The first buses began running April 18 on lines formerly used by three older systems. Funding comes from fares, a Los Angeles County Transportation Commission demonstration grant funded by Proposition A and from local cities’ share of Proposition A money.

The system recently won a 1990 Transportation Award of Excellence from Commuter Transportation Services Inc. and the Southern California Assn. of Governments.