Karen S. Kim
GLENDALE -- About $300,000 of federal funding has been secured by Rep.
Adam Schiff (D-Glendale) to help support the popular Glendale Beeline
shuttle bus service.
The money will go toward purchasing a bus, which costs $325,000, and
the city will pay the rest, officials said.
"Anything to help expand and grow the Beeline, which is very popular,
just helps us to deliver a better service to the citizens who come out
and keep riding the bus more and more," said Mark Maloney, city
supervisor of transportation and parking services.
The Glendale Beeline service uses a fleet of 35 buses and costs 25
cents a ride, or 15 cents for senior citizens. Twenty-eight buses are
needed to operate the system everyday.
And in the last five years, ridership of Beeline has risen from 1.6
million to 2.5 million, Maloney said.
The Beeline buses operate on fixed routes, transporting community
members to and from key city destinations -- including Glendale Community
College, Glendale Galleria, Glendale Central Library and Montrose
Shopping Park.
"This is a great, inexpensive way for people to get around. A lot of
seniors use the beeline buses, and it gets a lot of cars off the road and
reduces congestion in our neighborhoods," Schiff said. "At a time when
cities are facing additional costs in security, anything we can do to
offset their costs in other areas is a big help."
Aside from the additional bus to be purchased with the $300,000, the
city has already ordered 14 new Glendale Beeline buses to replace older
buses in the system by the end of the month. The new buses will be 35
feet long, have 30 seats and run on compressed natural gas.
