`RAPID BUSES' WIN APPROVAL; VENTURA BLVD. EXPRESS IN PLAN.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Daily News Staff Writer

In the face of a court order to reduce crowding on buses, an MTA board panel approved a scaled-down version Thursday of a ``rapid buses'' program meant to speed commuters to their destinations.

The committee unanimously approved without discussion the creation of a pilot program with three rapid bus lines, rather than the $276 million, countywide network of 16 lines that the staff had proposed in the fall.

``We think it'll have a significant impact on bus service,'' said Rex Gephart, the project manager.

Bus Riders Union members said they would rather have the 16 new lines, although even those would not be enough to expand service as called for under a court order.

``The question for you is, will you ever do anything voluntarily?'' asked union organizer Kikanza Ramsey.

The full board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is scheduled to consider the recommendation Thursday.

One of the three pilot lines would run on Ventura Boulevard starting in mid-2000, when the Universal City subway station is set to open. The 16-mile route would have just 14 stops - about one stop every 1.3 miles compared with one stop every quarter-mile for local buses between the subway station and Warner Center. The rapid buses would run every seven to 10 minutes during peak hours.

Equipped with technology to advance or hold green lights, the rapid buses would cut 15 percent to 25 percent off bus riders' travel time, said Russ Chisholm, president of Solana Beach-based Transportation Management & Design Inc., a planning and engineering consultant to the MTA on the project.

The committee voted to recommend a contract through December 2000 with the firm, in an amount not to exceed $320,000.

But at the request of Chief Executive Officer Julian Burke, the committee put off indefinitely a vote on funding for the pilot project itself.

Burke cited the March 8 order by Washington, D.C., attorney Donald Bliss, who was appointed by a federal court to oversee MTA compliance with a 1996 court-sanctioned agreement known as a consent decree on bus service.

Called a special master, Bliss ordered the 532 buses because he found an MTA program to buy 2,095 new buses by 2004 wouldn't go far enough to reduce chronic crowding on the agency's buses. The 532 buses alone could cost as much as $200 million, while the impact on the MTA's operating budget isn't clear.

``We are in the process of a very extensive analysis of the effects of the master's order,'' Burke told the committee.

The other two pilot lines would be from Santa Monica to the Eastside and from the Mid-City area to the Eastside. All three lines would run in corridors once slated for subway extensions that are now all but dead.

The total cost for the pilot program would be $16.5 million for the operating budget and $14.9 million in capital expenses, mostly for 17 new buses, six special Rapid Bus station pairs and enhancements to 49 other stops.

CAPTION(S):

map

Map: Proposed Metro Rapid Bus route