It has been a long two months since the full Metro Board of Directors has gathered. But gather they will, beginning at 9 a.m. or shortly thereafter on Thursday at Metro HQ adjacent to Union Station in DTLA.
The agenda is above. If you would like to listen/watch online, click here.
It’s a pretty light agenda this month. It’s worth noting that this is the first meeting presided over by Metro Board Chair John Fasana, who also serves as a City Councilmember in Duarte.
Perhaps the most interesting item on the agenda involves the 501 Bus, i.e. the NoHo to Pasadena Express, which began running earlier this year as a six-month pilot program. The Board is set to consider extending the line for another six months.
Metro staff noted that ridership has been on the low side, especially on the weekends. From the Metro staff report:
Staff recommends that the weekend service be reduced from every 30 minutes to every 45 minutes and that the span of service be reduced to operate between 8am and 8pm. These actions would save 2,100 annual revenue bus hours. These savings could be reinvested into an expanded weekday peak period service. Presently Line 501 operates every 15 minutes during weekday peaks and every 30 minutes during weekday mid-day and weekends. Using the weekend service hours during the weekday peak periods would allow service to be operated every 12 minutes during heart of each peak period. This would make the service more attractive and easier to use during the highest ridership demand periods.
There is also a motion by Board Members Mike Antonovich and Ara Najarian asking the agency to study adding early or late night service and lowering the fare from the premium $2.50 (for freeway lines) to the regular $1.75, among other upgrades. See items 30 and 30.1 on the agenda.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
Having the Inspector General at 818 makes a bit of sense since it allows people to whistleblow on coworkers or vendors without being seen talking to them in the cafeteria or in the elevator. It also provides a bit more privacy for sensitive investigations. As someone who worked in the agency for some time you know that there have been many scandals in the past, and the IG was formed as a way to root out budding problems so they don’t make the front page of the newspaper.
After nearly thirty years the MTA is still maintaining offices at 818 Seventh Street, the former LACTC agency offices prior to the merger. Are there still former LACTC employees who refuse to move to the MTA building at Union Station? There is certainly ample room there and always has been. When is this mindset going to disappear that many don’t want to be connected with the bus side of the agency? When I was still employed at the MTA we were forbidden to answer the phone MTA or it’s complete name but instead “Metro Bus.” It’s one big agency and everyone should recognize the fact.
I also noted there is a lot of money being appropriated and spent on non public transit projects in addition to the millions spent on contracting out service to two private contractors. Those millions could be saved significantly if the service was brought back within the agency. Although the bus operators and mechanics make less money per hour the overhead for management appears to be significantly higher. During my over thirty years with the MTA and prior RTD I became well aware of the pitfalls that were associated with privatization. Inadequate maintenance which resulted in more breakdowns and then extremely long down times for the bus assignment due to slow responses by the contractor. Assignments not filled and cancelled due to a lack of reserve Bus Operators even if it was the last bus on the line. One day after I signed on as a Road Supervisor I observed a “Dodger Express” bus sitting on Sunset Bl. approaching Figueroa broken down. This was a contract newer bus. While pulling in eight hours later the same bus was still sitting at the same location. I stopped and inquired if the operator had received any assistance in the almost eight hours and his reply was “No.” I notified Bus Operations Control and requested they contact the contractor with the information I provided.
As a semi-regular user of 501, I hope they continue to extend it and add late hours. I’m sad if it goes from 30 to 45 on weekends, but I understand if it helps out during peak hours.
I am curious why it costs $75 million to inspect and repair elevators/escalators over 5 years. That’s an insane amount of money being spent on these items. I understand that there was an independent cost estimate (that came in at $67 million), but I still don’t believe that is what it really costs. There was only one bid for this contract, which makes me question whether LA County got a fair price.
It would really help if the agenda, and other METRO related posts were available in PDF format. Those of us who wish to read the information are put at a disadvantage simply because some of us have vision problems.
By putting this in PDF or having another reader available, it enables those of us who wish to read these documents the ability to increase the font size in order to make it more visable to us. Is there any way of doing this? It is already available with METRO’s schedules, Why not everything else?
Hi John;
You can download the agenda from the Scribd page or from metro.net: https://metro.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
“There is also a motion by Board Members Mike Antonovich and Ara Najarian asking the agency to study adding early or late night service and lowering the fare from the premium $2.50 (for freeway lines) to the regular $1.75, among other upgrades. See items 30 and 30.1 on the agenda.”
Does this include the Silver Line, the 460, etc. as well?
Hi Mary;
The motion only applies to the 501 Line. It’s important to note that it asks Metro to study the issue — not actually implement the change at this time.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source