bus

I've fallen behind these past few weeks in transit news for the past few weeks because of difficulties with school. I'll decide what to do with this site next month in September, but for now, my postings are officially on hiatus. Thank you for riding transit, bicycling, and walking Orange County. For now, I leave you with some good, uplifting news:

OCTA is giving away free Angels tickets for those who subscribe to their OCTA Bus page on Facebook and answer a simple question Wednesday morning. The first 25 fans to post an answer to the question will each receive 2 Angels games tickets.

From their Facebook page:

  read more→

OCTA gave a preview of their bus system's proposed minor schedule and routing changes for this coming September 2010. OCTA staff are considering changes to 19 bus routes.

CEO Will Kempton wrote in a letter to the Transit Committee on June 24, 2010 on some of the proposed changes:

• Line 1 (Pacific Coast Highway): Restore winter schedule all days
• Line 20 (Imperial Highway): Adjust running time (operates weekdays only)
• Line 21 (Valley View St): Trip deletions weekdays due to low demand.
• Line 24 (Malvern Ave/Chapman Ave): Trip deletions weekdays due to low demand.
• Line 29 (Beach Boulevard): Adjust connections all days; increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 30 (Orangethorpe Avenue): Revise Anaheim Hills turnaround loop
• Line 43 (Harbor Boulevard): Adjust connections all days ; increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 47 (Anaheim Boulevard/Fairview Street): Adjust connections all days
• Line 50 (Katella): Increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 59 (Kraemer/Glassell/Grand/Von Karman): Saturday-Sunday improve headways from 90-minutes to 65-minutes
• Line 60 (Westminster Avenue/17th Street): Adjust weekday running times Line 64 (Bolsa Avenue/1st Street): Add weekday afternoon trip westbound
• Line 64 (1st St): Increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 70 (Edinger Avenue): Adjust weekday running times; revise turnaround loop at Tustin Station during construction all days of the week
• Line 76 (Talbert Avenue/MacArthur Boulevard): Revise route to allow connections with Line 79 to/from UCI; adjust weekday running time (operates weekdays only)
• Line 79 (Irvine Boulevard/Culver Drive/University Avenue): Revise route to operate on campus at University of California Irvine (UCI)
• Line 83 (Santa Ana Freeway/Main Street): Extend weekday evening trip southbound to originate at Disneyland instead of downtown Santa Ana; revise route to serve Orangewood Avenue all days of the week
• Line 90 (Irvine Center/Moulton Parkway/Golden Lantern): Adjust weekday running time; weekday mornings extend one short trip and add one full length trip; revise turnaround loop at Tustin Station during construction all days of the week
• Line 129 (La Habra/Brea/Birch/Kraemer): Adjust weekday running time; trip deletions weekdays due to low demand; Saturday-Sunday improve headways from 90-minutes to 65-minutes
• Line 143 (Whittier/Harbor/Brea/Birch): Weekdays add one evening trip; other possible trip deletions on weekdays; Saturday-Sunday improve headways from 75-minutes to 65-minutes
• Line 153 (through Anaheim): Trip deletions weekdays due to low demand.
• Line 175 (Yale Avenue – Campus Drive): Revise turnaround loop to better serve Mariposa Villa
• Line 211(Seal Beach-Irvine 405 Express): Revise route at Golden West Transportation Center
• Line 213 (Brea-Irvine 55 Freeway Express): Revise route to serve UCI campus

Some of these changes are shown in the map OCTA released below:

  read more→

OCTA will begin charging $1.00 for the Bus Book — which contains all of OCTA's and Orange County transit operators' bus and train schedules — due to budget shortfalls.

According to OCTA staff, their Bus Book is the most preferred source of bus information versus online, texting, bus stop information, and even printing out schedules with their e-Busbook website feature. 

"An important part of the OCTA marketing program is the provision of public information. The Bus Book identifies all of the bus routes and schedules and provides details about how to ride the bus, fares, passes, etc. Staff is identifying ways to continue to provide this level of printed customer information during times of significant budget constraints. A pilot program, charging $1.00 for the bus book is being tested in September 2010. The purpose of the program is to offset marketing costs so that this type of information can continue to be provided."

Several recent OCTA marketing surveys in the past few years indicated that a majority of bus riders would purchase a bus book to manage costs.

The Orange County Register has other details on OCTA's $1 fee: read more→

This press release landed in my inbox last night; a new contract between the Teamsters and OCTA's Board means that there's one less wildcard in terms of bus operations. According to a news post at Voice of OC: “ The poor economy has forced 156 coach operator layoffs and 44 administration layoffs at OCTA in less than two years. The pact, retroactive to May 1, holds salaries for 903 drivers at current levels for at least two years, but leaves the door open to renew contract talks in the third year if the economy improves. Currently, beginning drivers earn $15.22 an hour, and the top pay is $23.92, plus medical and retirement benefits.”

Here's the press release:  read more→

Orange County is lucky that Walt Disney chose Anaheim. Besides building an amusement park, Walt also wanted to suggest things that would help us in the future. For that reason, Walt Disney built a Monorail system not only in the park, but to the D-Land Hotel as well.

In his dreams, Walt wanted to extend the monorail system to Knott's Berry Farm, the Convention Center; and Anaheim Stadium would have been in his plans. read more→