Residents speak out on Beeline

CITY HALL — Glendale residents drove home their transit issues during a heated discussion of the restructuring of the Glendale Beeline service at Monday's Transportation and Parking Commission meeting, where the commission voted unanimously to recommend the city's Short-Range Transit Master Plan to the City Council for approval.

As city staffers prepare to bring the plan before the council on June 1, they have taken into account concepts from the recently passed city Mobility Study in aiming to facilitate local transit, officials said.

"Every five years we look at our transit system," said Jano Baghdanian, Glendale's traffic and transportation administrator. "We look at our service levels, we look at the productivity of the current existing lines and we look at the demand that we have."

Included in the plan are suggestions to slightly alter some of the Glendale Beeline routes in an attempt to improve travel while taking into account the budget, which sits around the $6-million range.

Among proposed improvements will be the "School Tripper" service, which will add extra buses to distribute passengers coming from Glendale High School and Hoover High School during peak hours before and after school.

"This will allow us to untangle the fixed route system from the schools," said Paul Jewel of Nelson/Nygaard, who the city has consulted with for the plan. There will also be adjustments to some routes to allow more direct service to Glendale Community College.

One of these proposed adjustments will be the availability of service on Glendale Avenue south of Broadway.

Also, to offset rising costs of fuel, equipment and repairs, fares can be expected to increase if the plan is passed.

General fares will double from 25 cents to 50 cents per trip, and a 31-day pass will change from $12 to $20.

For seniors and the disabled, costs will increase from 15 cents to 25 cents per trip and a 31-day pass will jump from $4.50 to $10.

Though the plan was approved for recommendation, not everyone was happy with the proposed changes.

Many residents of Glenoaks Canyon showed up at the meeting to voice their concerns about changes to their public transit service.

Canyonites, who in December lost their Metropolitan Transportation Authority Route 201 bus, have been served since then by a special shuttle provided by the city.