Ride report: Metro Rapid 734

 

Note: Edited July 10, 2006, to supply the Ride Report with photos from the June 26 trip. Please excuse the camera-phone-grade quality of the pictures.  

Los Angeles riders have yet another Rapid bus available to them. The newest red-bus service is 734, mirroring local 234 along Sepulveda Boulevard between the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station and the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Line 734 is a brand new service; 234 never had a limited-stop counterpart. Line 734 also has very generous service by Valley standards; 10 minutes during rush hour and 20 minutes mid-day. There’s no weekend service yet.

I took a southbound trip leaving Sylmar/San Fernando Station at around 2:30 p.m., just a few minutes after the Princessa-bound Metrolink train left. I snapped a picture of NABI bus 7867 arriving, and driver John Botley (badge #8899, Division 15) greeted me enthusiastically to take me on a fantastic voyage along Sepulveda.

Botley and I would talk the whole trip about work, boxing, the world and just about everything else. He would of course still drive and courteously greet passengers, and I’d scope out goings-on in and outside of the bus.

Sepulveda Boulevard, in the San Fernando Valley, is a north-south thoroughfare connecting parts of the Valley that are good, bad and everything in between. On the north, the route runs through quiet, well-kept residential neighborhoods in the northeast Valley, then turns to a drag of strip malls and motels south of the 118 freeway. Here in Van Nuys often discusses the highs, lows and creamy middles of the street. This area has more than its share of crime (drug dealing, prostitution, etc.), but the northern parts of the boulevard look like things are turning around. The middle of the Valley has a long way to go, though. Close to Ventura Boulevard, Sepulveda turns to apartments, and the bus turns around via Magnolia Boulevard, Kester Avenue and Ventura Boulevard to layover across from the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The trip was reasonably quick. The entire route took about 35 minutes.

 

The first day of service saw very little ridership. There were only about 15 riders end-to-end. There was reasonably good promotion of the route, but many riders did not know the route started today or how limited-stop service worked. In contrast, riders south of Mulholland Drive take to limiteds quickly and ridership is healthy from the start. Perhaps ridership will start picking up as rider word-of-mouth spreads.

In a few cases, Metro seemed as unready as the riders for the service. Several 734 buses, including 7867, did not have working headsigns. One bus actually had “734” written out on the headsign in masking tape. And 734 continues the Rapid tradition of promoting itself as “bus rapid transit” but offering only limited-stop service with red buses and better marketing.

Notwithstanding that, 734 is one of Metro’s better Rapid routes. There’s a noticeable time advantage, and the bus seemed to have passed through green lights except for major intersections such as Roscoe Boulevard, Sherman Way and the Orange Line station. The speed of the route is mostly because of the lack of passengers; if 734 catches on, I could see an end-to-end trip take about 45 minutes. A local 234 can take from 45 minutes to an hour. Also, north-south Rapids are more effective in the Valley, where intersecting bus lines are spaced about ½ mile to 1 mile apart. For the rest of the city, the Rapid stops are about every 3-4 blocks apart, making them just as slow as the locals. The other advantage of 734 is that since it stays in the Valley, it can operate more reliably than Line 761, which has to contend with heavy traffic in the UCLA area, the 405 freeway and central Van Nuys Boulevard.

The best part of the trip was riding with Botley, who has driven for Metro and RTD for 30 years. This veteran operator is charming and develops a great rapport with his riders. You may or may not find him on 734. He’s on the Division 15 extra board, meaning that his route assignments change on any given day. If you see the driver with badge number 8899, say hello and thank him for the excellent service.

Getting around the Valley got somewhat easier on June 26, and given some time and experience, riders will take advantage of 734.