BUS RIDERS GROUP CONFRONTS COUNCIL.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Members of an advocacy group for bus riders disrupted a Los Angeles City Council meeting Tuesday as part of a protest seeking support for reduced bus fares and a radically increased bus fleet.

Members of the Bus Riders Union marched the mile or so from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority headquarters to City Hall calling for Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council members who serve on the MTA board to support their cause.

``A lot of the public does not know who's on the MTA board, and we're trying to specifically target them so people do know,'' said Eric Mann, head of the union and the Labor/Community Strategy Center. ``The point is to put the heat on the City Council and the (Los Angeles County) Board of Supervisors.''

Riordan is a member of the MTA board and has appointed three other members, including Councilman Richard Alatorre. In addition, council members Hal Bernson, Nate Holden and Jackie Goldberg serve as alternate board members.

In addition, all five county supervisors are MTA board members.

The Bus Riders Union has mounted a ``Billions for Buses'' campaign, calling for a bus fare cut from $1.35 to $1 and a reduction in monthly bus pass charges from $49 to $40, for a total annual cost to the agency of about $32 million, Mann said, citing MTA estimates.

The union also is asking for the agency to buy 1,050 compressed natural gas buses over five years, to increase the bus fleet to about 3,000, Mann said. It would cost an additional $315 million to buy the buses and $220 million a year to run and maintain them, Mann said.

``If you do that for five years, you get the equivalent of (the planned) Pasadena Blue Line'' light rail system, Mann said. ``We think (bus) ridership will go from 350,000 people to 500,000 a day.''

The protesters sparked no reaction from the council, but Alatorre and representatives for Riordan and Bernson said the complaints were understandable but misguided.

``I don't happen to subscribe to their opinion that you emasculate any other option and give everything to buses,'' said Alatorre, who voted against the fare hikes in 1994. ``That's idiotic. We have to improve our bus system, but I don't believe we do that at the cost of everything else.''

Proposals to use ``smart shuttles'' and other creative approaches to deal with bus ridership demands at peak times may be more cost-effective than simply putting more vehicles on the road, Alatorre said.

Deputy Mayor Steve Sugerman said improving the bus system has become Riordan's top MTA priority. But he said the mayor believes the best way to achieve these improvements is to restructure the board.

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photo: The Bus Riders Union call for cheaper fares and more buses, to be funded by shelving MTA rail projects.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News