ORANGE-RED LINE HOOKUP ENCINO-PASADENA BUS NOW GETS NORTH HOLLYWOOD STOP.

Byline: SUE DOYLE

Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- A bus line that has shuttled San Fernando Valley commuters directly to Pasadena since 1991 expanded Monday to include a key stop -- the meeting of the Orange and Red lines.

For 16 years, the Commuter Express 549 traveled nonstop from Encino to Pasadena. But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority added the North Hollywood stop to make it more accessible to the thousands of public-transit users who make their way through the Orange/Red line terminus daily.

The timing couldn't have been better for Deborah Watson of Valley Village, who doesn't have a car. The bus drops her off across the street from her job at Nestle in Glendale and makes fewer stops than other ones she's tried. A one-way ticket is $2.20.

"It is easy," she said with a grin.

The North Hollywood stop came about after the San Fernando Valley's Service Sector, a community arm of the MTA, asked the city in November to pick up commuters there, said Philip Aker, transportation planner for the city's Department of Transportation.

Since then, traffic planners from Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank have approached the MTA about developing a similar express line from North Hollywood to the Gold Line, said Michael Brewer, San Fernando Valley Service Sector development manager.

A study for the new route is under way, Brewer said. The line would have just four stops from start to finish and longer operating hours than the city's Commuter Express, which makes nine stops and runs four hours a day.

Running every 20 minutes in the morning and afternoon, Burbank buses also take passengers from the North Hollywood transit station to the TV and film studios just miles away.

Still, the new Commuter Express stop in North Hollywood worked out well Monday for Irma Barrera, who leaned against a palm tree at 7 a.m. as she waited for it. The bus drops her off near a Pasadena home she cleans.

"For me, it's more convenient than other buses," she said. "It's very good for me."

On board the snazzy white bus, passengers sit in plush gray seats and read, do crossword puzzles or listen to music. The bus provides a reprieve from the traffic outside its windows, said Vanessa B. Williams, who takes it from Encino to her job as a customer service and collection agent in Glendale.

"It's a lot easier for me not to drive and battle the traffic," Williams said. "It makes such a big difference. I'm not all uptight when I get to work."

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Bus riders Shanda Gilmore of Van Nuys and Jed Williston of Sherman Oaks enjoy the Computer Express 549 ride to Pasadena on the 134 Freeway on Monday. It now includes a key stop in North Hollywood.

(2) - Vanessa B. Williams, takes the bus line from Encino to her job in Glendale

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer