Even With Growing Pains, Antelope Valley Transit Is on a Roll

ANTELOPE VALLEY —  There have been some bumps and a few unexpected potholes to contend with, but the people in charge of the Antelope Valley Transit Authority say the agency’s first year of operation has been a relatively smooth journey.

Created to allow local control of public transportation in north Los Angeles County, the Antelope Valley Transit Authority has added commuter buses, changed routes, increased fares and through it all seen the number of riders grow by more than 25% over the previous system, which was managed by county officials 80 miles away in Alhambra.

AVTA, a joint-powers authority, was created in March, 1992, by the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster and Los Angeles County. It is run by a three-member board composed of a representative of each city and the county.

When AVTA took over the bus service last July 1, the expectations were minimal.

Michael Tanner, a Metropolitan Transit Authority project manager for the San Fernando Valley-north county area, said because AVTA was raising some transit rates, “everyone thought they were doomed.”

Time has told a different story.

“I think the AVTA has progressed very well,” Tanner said. “There were not great expectations from the very beginning, but the expectations that were there have been far exceeded.”

One indication that local control over transit may be improving the system is the annual hearing held to air complaints. In past years, those hearings, where people can express their gripes about public transit, have been a forum for extensive complaints. The hearing held a few months ago prompted few grievances.

Nonetheless, the trek has not always been easy for the new agency.

As AVTA was organizing for its takeover of public transit in the Antelope Valley there was a great deal of community protest. About the only thing people seemed pleased with, if anything, was that local control over the transit system was allowing them the opportunity to voice their complaints without the need for a long drive or telephone call to Alhambra.

Senior citizens were the most disgruntled about the new transit agency. AVTA decided to raise the rates for the door-to-door service known as Dial-a-Ride to $1.50 for a one-way trip. While the cost may seem minor to some for custom transportation, it was a steep increase. Seniors had only months before begun paying 50 cents for Dial-a-Ride. Before that, the service had always been free.

The most verbal opponents of the new Dial-a-Ride rate predicted it would be devastating to the elderly who rely on the service to take them to grocery stores, medical appointments and the low-cost weekday lunches at the senior centers in Palmdale and Lancaster.

There were also complaints about fare increases in the fixed-route service, which provides scheduled transportation Monday through Saturday around the two cities and some outlying areas. Fixed-route fares were increased by AVTA from 50 cents under the former operator to 75 cents.

It seemed the only public transit riders who were not complaining as AVTA got under way were commuters. Their service was expanded and the rates were lowered. But complaints from riders of the buses that haul workers to the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles came later, as AVTA commuter buses filled to capacity and some riders were left behind.

Bill Budlong, AVTA executive director and one of the four-member AVTA paid staff, said the transit agency has come a long way in the past year.

“I’m very pleased with what we’ve been able to do in the first year,” Budlong said. “The system is stable--stable financially and stable in ridership.”

Joe Davies, an AVTA board member and Palmdale councilman, said the agency has done well because it is locally run.

“We are able to be far more flexible and more quickly flexible than if we didn’t have local control,” Davies said.

In fact, he noted, AVTA is planning to add a sixth route to accommodate the requests of residents in the east valley community of Lake Los Angeles.

Already, the new agency is serving substantially more riders than its predecessor served in the Antelope Valley. The most recent records available from AVTA show that more than 103,000 people rode public transit in April, a 26.3% increase over the same month a year ago under the county-run system.

AVTA has made its greatest gains with the commuter service. Before the local agency was created, the county was close to eliminating the commuter service because of low ridership, Budlong said.

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About 13,700 people rode the commuter buses in April, down from a record high of 14,904 in March but up 89.9% compared to one year ago, according to AVTA records.

Local ridership in April was up by more than 20% compared to a year ago, with 84,678 riders, according to the agency.

Even Dial-a-Ride has recovered well from its initial decline after AVTA took it over and tripled the rates. In April, nearly 5,100 people used the door-to-door service, up 18.6% from the some month a year ago.

The skepticism has subsided, said Ralph Sparks, a director with the Antelope Valley Committee on Aging. Sparks said that when AVTA first came on line he received several complaints a day. Now he gets no more than two a week.

“We were skeptical at first,” he said. “Our feelings are everything can be worked out. We have a pretty good feeling about AVTA.”

One step that has helped quell the outcry was the start of a subsidy program earlier this year to provide half-price tickets to those senior citizens who could not afford the $1.50 Dial-a-Ride fare. Several thousand tickets have been purchased.

But as the pricing problem was overcome, other issues arose. Riders complained about the service’s dispatch system--hold times were long, schedulers were rude and pickups were not made on time.

A computerized dispatch system may be installed, and, according to Budlong, the dispatchers’ manners have been addressed.

Another problem has been vandalism.

DAVE Transportation Services, the Santa Ana-based firm that operates the system, said vandalism is costing about $2,000 per month and has taken buses temporarily out of service for repairs.

Window scratching, graffiti, cuts in seats and other problems are limited to the fixed-route buses and are believed to be the work of students who use public transit to get to and from school, Budlong said.

AVTA had hoped to install a video camera system in its fixed-route buses, but is not expected to get the federal grant it hoped would cover 80% of the cost.

The only federal transit funds AVTA will probably get in the coming fiscal year are $2.3 million to add six to eight commuter buses to its fleet, which is already increasing from 13 to 21.

Tanner said the MTA board is scheduled Wednesday to approve $210 million in transit projects for federal grants. MTA received 156 proposals totaling about $2.5 billion. AVTA’s request for $2.3 million is among those expected to win approval.

The extra commuter buses are crucial to AVTA, which many times over the year has left potential riders behind because the buses have been filled to capacity.

The new buses will increase the number of runs to Los Angeles and add an Antelope Valley-Santa Clarita run.