MEGABUSES FOR VALLEY?; MTA TO PRESENT CITYWIDE PLAN FOR IMPROVING SERVICE.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Commuters would be shuttled across the San Fernando Valley in high-speed megabuses traveling in their own dedicated lanes under a plan to improve Los Angeles bus service to be presented by the MTA today.

The express buses could carry up to 160 people and whisk through the Valley from Warner Center to the North Hollywood subway and on to Burbank thanks to timed traffic signals and dedicated overpasses at the major intersections.

A network of smaller shuttles, meanwhile, would be used in conjunction with standard buses to provide more frequent service reaching more deeply into residential areas, even the riders' front doors, according to the plan.

The megabuses could substantially boost the number of people using mass transit for a cost of $15 million to $25 million per mile, compared with the $80 million per mile for a light-rail system, and $300 million per mile for a subway system, MTA officials said.

``It's easily convertible to light rail, and we can get it up much, much sooner,'' said Jim de la Loza, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's executive officer in charge of planning.

The plan would provide the MTA more flexibility to use smaller shuttle buses on routes that aren't as heavily traveled, allowing a better use of the agency's resources while at the same time providing for better service, he said.

``We're trying to match the type of vehicle to the job,'' he said. ``If a 40-foot bus does the job, we'll use it. (Or) we'll use a whole bunch of shuttles. The flexibility is there,'' de la Loza said.

Preparation of the plan was spurred by Mayor Richard Riordan, who as chairman of the MTA board asked the agency to come up with a plan to improve service.

It will be presented to the MTA's planning and programming committee today, de la Loza said, as a jumping-off point for discussions on making the system better.

Political and transportation leaders generally had not reviewed the proposal, but those who had said they were pleased the agency is attempting to put together a smarter bus system.

``The good news is there seems to be a growing consensus to focus attention on the bus system, more than any time in the last 10 years,'' said City Councilman Richard Alarcon, an MTA board alternate. ``We've focused all our attention on trying to build rail lines.''

East and west focus

Alarcon said he was concerned the proposal adds little new service for the northeast San Fernando Valley, which he represents. That area is home to the Valley's most transit-dependent residents, while the agency's proposal emphasizes moving people east and west.

But de la Loza said the MTA is trying to ease worsening congestion along the Ventura Freeway corridor and the Cahuenga and Sepulveda passes, all of which are nearing gridlock.

``The nightmare is dealing with the east-west corridor,'' de la Loza said. ``We have to get more capacity. It's a rush hour both directions.''

The proposals do include a possible new route linking the Panorama City Shopping Center with East Los Angeles.

That line and 17 others are part of proposed new services now being negotiated with the Bus Riders Union, said union spokesman Chris Mathis. The union sued the MTA successfully to force improvements to the bus system and has been dickering over how that will be achieved.

Bit of a surprise

Mathis and Eric Mann, the union's leader, said the latest proposals were a bit of a surprise, but are encouraging signs that at least some MTA officials are thinking about how to make the bus system work better.

Mann said he is concerned that the agency is trying to simply repackage its old system in new language, without making significant improvements. Converting regular buses into shuttles only makes sense if the buses indeed are lightly used, as the MTA maintains, Mann said.

``None of our members ever found that two-thirds-empty bus running at 8 p.m.,'' Mann said. ``The MTA keeps attacking the low-density corridors. But they're low-density corridors because it's (bad) service.''

Mann said he also is concerned the proposal and the way it is being handled are circumventing the consent decree the MTA signed to settle the union's suit. The new tiered service may conflict with some of the overcrowding standards and other requirements called for in the decree.

The MTA's new bus plan depends in part on a backbone of bus-only lanes, or busways. It is inspired by a system de la Loza and other transit leaders saw in a recent visit to Curitiba, Brazil.

To speed loading, passengers pay their fares ahead of time, when entering special enclosed bus stops. The busways would have overpasses at major intersections, and specially timed lights at lesser crossings to further improve travel times.

A San Fernando Valley busway could run from Warner Center along Victory Boulevard, Oxnard Street and Lankershim Boulevard to the North Hollywood terminus of the Metro Red Line subway, then jog back north along Chandler Boulevard to Burbank under the proposal.

``I like the notion of these heavy buses, but where you might utilize them is the critical issue,'' said Alarcon. ``They won't work everywhere, but it's an option we didn't have before that might ease some long-standing concerns.''

L.A. busways

Other busways would be built along Exposition Boulevard from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum westward to Santa Monica, and hook south on Prairie Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard to connect to the Metro Green Line.

Another key to the system is the network of shuttles, at least some of which would be able to deviate from a fixed route to pick up riders at or near their homes, de la Loza said.

The agency also wants to do a better job coordinating its operations with those of municipal operators such as the city Department of Transportation.

The munis run their own fleets and routes, comprising about a third of the buses in the county, but coordination with the MTA hasn't always been as efficient as it should be, with duplication in some areas and service holes in others, de la Loza said.

De la Loza said the agency could implement much of the system within three to five years, far quicker than probable opening dates for a new rail line across the Valley and many other parts of the county.

That's possible because converting to shuttle services in many areas, particularly at night and on weekends when usage is lighter, would save substantial money.

The agency should be able to pay for one or two busways with available money, de la Loza said. Additional routes would require the MTA board to figure out what other projects it would stop or slow down.

De la Loza said the agency does not have solid cost estimates of the conversion, and it plans to do significantly more work to determine those prices. It also is issuing requests for proposals to run the shuttles and other components to see whether private providers can run some services more cheaply.

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Photo: (1-3) MTA SHOWS BUSES IN VALLEY'S FUTURE

The MTA is proposing a new bus system that would rely on three tiers of service: megabuses that would travel on designated busways; regular 40-foot buses such as those now widely in service; and a network of shuttles that would connect local neighborhoods with the heavier-capacity lines.

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