Title:

Date: Tuesday July 13, 5:37 am

In honor of Metro’s new Venice Bl. Rapid Bus (#733), I will describe the history of public transportation on Venice Boulevard.

It Began With A Rail Line….

The story starts in 1897 when the Pasadena and Pacific Railway, one of Los Angeles’ early streetcar companies, built a line along 16th Street (later renamed Venice Boulevard) from Hill St. in downtown, to Vineyard, a neighborhood just east of Crenshaw Boulevard. At Vineyard, the line branched to Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. In 1902, the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad extended this line westward along Venice Blvd. to Ocean Park; about a year later, a connection was made to Santa Monica. Although the line was generally speedy, congestion along the 16th Street portion caused the Los Angeles Pacific to consider building a subway under that street. Real estate developers in Beverly Hills promoted properties in anticipation of the new subway. Unfortunately, the subway idea was abandoned in 1907 due to financial problems.

Pacific Electric acquired the The Venice Short Line (as it came to be called) as part of its “Great Merger” in 1911. The Venice Short Line catered to longer-distance trips; PE ran local trains between downtown Los Angeles and Vineyard to accommodate short-haul travel. In practice, most people found it just as easy to walk to the Los Angeles Railway lines on nearby Pico or Washington Boulevards; LARY fares were generally less as well.

Buses to the Beach

The Venice Short Line was the most direct way to get to the beach from downtown Los Angeles, and it was very popular with beachgoers. It also attracted competition from bus companies as soon as practical buses were developed. (Before 1917, there was little regulation as to where bus companies could operate).

One short-lived competitor was the Pacific Motor Coach Company. Starting in April 1914, this company ran double-deck buses between Los Angeles and Venice, along nearby Washington Blvd. Their buses, built on truck chassis, were not particularly comfortable. Strong competition by jitneys (motorists who offered rides to people waiting at bus/streetcar stops) also contributed to Pacific Motor Coach going out of business by December.

About ten years later, businessman Ralph Carrasco operated several bus lines in and around Venice (which was an independent city until 1925). His principal route operated along Venice Blvd. between the Venice traffic circle and Motor Ave. in Culver City. This was in direct competition with the Pacific Electric route, but no one with any authority paid any attention until Venice was annexed to the City of Los Angeles in November 1925. Carrasco’s line now fell under the jurisdiction of the city’s Board of Utilities and Transportation, who asked him to cease operating it. Carrasco sold his other bus routes to Bay Cities Transit, which eventually was acquired by Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus.

There was still demand for additional transportation to Venice, especially if it could offer lower fares than PE did. The City of Culver City began a municipal bus service along Washington Blvd. in March 1928, connecting Venice with the Los Angeles Railway streetcar terminal at Washington and Rimpau. Santa Monica set up a similar service along Pico Bl in April, connecting with the Pico/Rimpau terminal. This time, PE had little power to do anything about its new competition. Unlike privately-owned bus companies, municipal carriers were not subject to the jurisdiction of the Railroad Commission. LA’s BPU&T did not object to the municipal bus lines, as long as they did not ask to operate all the way to Downtown LA. A streetcar fare, plus the bus fare to the beach, was substantially cheaper than the PE fare from Downtown to Venice. As the nation entered the Great Depression, these buses further cut into the Venice Short Line’s ridership. Both the Culver City and Santa Monica bus systems exist to this day; these two lines (CC #1 on Washington and BBB #7 on Pico, respectively) are their busiest routes.

PE Goes Bus(t)

By 1950, PE, facing increased maintenance costs, decided to replace the Venice Short Line with a bus route. PE combined the Venice Bl. bus line with existing line #75 (which was the LA-Beverly Hills-Santa Monica route, “bussified” in 1940) and operated it as a big, two-way loop: LA-Vineyard-Culver City-Venice-Santa Monica-Beverly Hills-Vineyard-LA.

In 1963, LAMTA broke the route and reassigned the Beverly Hills portion to Line #4, which ran through Downtown and then Santa Monica Blvd. LAMTA extended #75 through Downtown and north into Echo Park. (A bus route #91, which ran from Vineyard via Venice Bl. through Downtown and into Echo Park, had operated since 1950,  replaceing the PE’s local Venice Bl. trains)

SCRTD, in 1981, implemented a new limited stop route along Venice Bl. It was numbered #313. In the “Great Renumbering” in 1983, #75 became #33, and #313 was renumbered to #333. Thus began the practice of adding 300 to the local bus route number to designate the corresponding limited stop route.

The #33 and #333 was extended to serve Union Station (in 1993) and Gateway Plaza, behind Union Station (in 1996).

An Odd Owl, Indeed

In December 2008, Metro reconfigured the service so that #33 only ran between 6th/Main (Downtown LA) and Venice. The #333 covered the entire length of the route, from Union Station to Santa Monica. This service pattern was observed even during late night and “owl” service, making the #333 possibly the first limited-stop owl service in the history of transit in Los Angeles. Although it allowed Metro to turn buses around faster, it must have been inconvenient for some riders to walk to a limited stop in the middle of the night. By late June 2010, Metro replaced the #333 with the #733 Rapid Bus, and owl trips on the #33 now include the entire route from Union Station to Santa Monica.

References:

Lines of Pacific Electric – Western District (Interurbans Press)

Duke, Donald. Pacific Electric Railway. Volume 4 – The Western Division

Bail, Eli. From Railway to Freeway, p. 19, 69-71

Electric Railway Journal, Feb 13, 1915, p. 324

Los Agneles. Bureau of Public Utilities and Transportation.  50th Annual Report, 1958-59, p. 84

Wolinsky, Julian. “Buses to the ‘Heart of Screenland’.” Bus World, v. 10, no 3, p. 8-15

Ayer, Bob. History of Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus
Southern California Association of Governments. Transit Development Program.
(contains histories of bus routes up to 1971)
Jones, Lionel. Los Angeles Bus Line History Book (updated route histories as of 2004)

Bus schedules, maps, agency agendas, etc. as appropriate

Comments and corrections welcomed

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Title:

Date: Friday July 2, 12:17 pm

(An occasional series describing a less-well known library or archive in Southern California, and its relevance to transportation history)

To be an effective transportation (or other kind of) historian, it is often necessary to access older documents in print or microfilm. Not everything is on the Internet (yet…)

However,  old books and periodicals can be hard to find. No library has infinite space, and as new materials arrive, the old ones have to go.

But someone, somewhere, just might need some of these items for research. Throwing them away is not an option, so where do they go?

If the library in question happens to be one of the southern University of California campuses (UC Los Angeles, Irvine, Riverside, San Diego or Santa Barbara), there is a good chance that these documents will end up at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF), hidden away on the UCLA campus.

Here is just a tiny sample of what awaits the transit historian at the SRLF.

More about the SRLF

The SRLF, which opened in 1987, is where older and lesser-used library materials are stored. Nearly six million books, journals, films, microfilms, government documents, and other documents are housed in a climate-controlled environment. Since the actual bookshelves are not open to the public (“closed stacks”), users must request materials from staff, either in person at the SRLF, or via the online catalog.

The SRLF is open weekdays, 1 to 5 pm. It is closed weekends and University holidays.

To use SRLF materials, you will need a library card. Non-UC users not otherwise eligible for a free card may either pay for a card that allows checkouts, or get a free “Access Only” card. Obtain your card at one of the other campus libraries before coming to the SRLF. Most books and journals in the SRLF, with the exception of certain “rare books” can be checked out (if you have borrowing privileges) or simply used in the library.

Visiting in person

Of course you can drive to campus, park in Lot 17, and pay $9.00 (if you don’t already have a UCLA parking pass). But since this blog is pro-public transportation…

Transit and pedestrian access to the Southern Regional Library Facility

It is possible to walk to the SRLF. However, the area in and around the facility is hilly, and the walk takes me about 20-30 minutes from the center of campus

There are also a couple of transit choices. The free Campus Express bus, which normally runs between campus and Westwood, also has another route running between McGowan Hall and the SRLF. This “Northwest Shuttle Van” connects with the main Campus Express route at the McGowan Hall loop, or you can walk to/from the MTA bus stop at Hilgard and Wyton (MTA #2/302, #305). The disadvantage is that the shuttle van runs only from 11:30 am to 2 p.m; leaving you stranded if you wish to stay at the SRLF longer.

Another option is to walk along the “Saxon Trail” from the bus stop at Gayley and Landfair (MTA #2) onto campus. Although this trail has a bad reputation, that I really don’t want to get into here, the real danger is probably tripping and falling on the badly maintained trail…

There is no pedestrian access to the SRLF from Veteran Avenue. Period. Don’t ask.

Let your fingers do the walking

It’s probably easier to request SRLF items via the UCLA Library Catalog. Materials can be delivered to the on-campus library of your choice. Materials requested by 11 am will be delivered by 4 pm the same (business) day; otherwise, they will arrive by 4 pm the next day. The library will also send you an e-mail reminder, if you gave them an e-mail address when you applied for your card.

Interlibrary Loan

You can also obtain SRLF items by asking your local public, college or other library to borrow them for you. Fees and other conditions may apply.

References:

http://www.srlf.ucla.edu/ (official SRLF page)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krbIAGFG47k

This video shows the process of using the catalog to request items. But a ten minute walk from the center of campus to SRLF? I doubt it!

http://infomaster76.blogspot.com/2009/02/southern-regional-library-facility.html (another good page describing the SRLF – with pictures of the closed stack areas. Interesting!)

Comments and corrections welcomed!

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Title:

Date: Saturday June 26, 4:39 pm

It used to be a lot easier to get from Los Angeles to Riverside or San Bernardino than it is now.

RTD #496, and its predecessor #60 connected Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley with the Inland Empire. Just hop on the bus, and within a couple of hours, you’d be some sixty miles away. No transferring, no trouble.

Story of a long route
The history of these routes can be traced all the way back to the interurban “stage” buses of the early 1910s. Truston Clark ran a bus line from Los Angeles to San Bernardino and Redlands via Ontario, while the A.R.G. Bus Co. operated over a similar route to Riverside. These bus lines competed with the Pacific Electric route from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, although the rail line operated along a more northerly route.

In the early 1920s, O.R. Fuller’s Motor Transit took over the Clark and A.R.G. bus lines and operated them from a depot at Los Angeles and Sixth Streets, downtown. These buses used Valley Boulevard between Los Angeles and Pomona, making good time along the relatively lightly trafficked road.

Between 1929 and 1933, a series of mergers and acquisitions left Motor Transit under the control of Pacific Electric. In a cost saving move, PE began to replace certain passenger rail lines with bus service. As the Los Angeles-San Bernardino rail line was cut back in the 1940s, a new bus route running along Foothill Boulevard went into service. When PE numbered its bus lines, this complex of routes received several numbers before eventually being designated #60.

Taking it to the freeway
As the San Gabriel Valley developed, travel along Valley Boulevard became increasingly slower. However, the San Bernardino Freeway had opened in the early 1960s. In 1964, the #60 was rerouted to use the freeway. A new local route, #53, served Valley Bl. between Los Angeles and Pomona.

LAMTA #60 between Los Angeles and Riverside/San Bernardino

LAMTA #60 between Los Angeles and Riverside/San Bernardino

#60 ran express to Pomona; then it split into three routes. #60E continued to Riverside before veering north to San Bernardino via Colton. #60F was the express version of #60E; it spent more time on the freeway and made only limited stops. #60G left Pomona for Claremont, and then continued through the foothill communities of Upland, Fontana and Rialto to San Bernardino.

This service pattern operated until 1973. That year, the bus company, now known as the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) asked the surrounding counties to help pay for the bus service. San Bernardino County refused, so RTD cut back the #60G to Upland. San Bernardino County replaced the Upland-San Bernardino portion of #60G with a new service, named “East Valley Transit.” (When Omnitrans came into being in 1976, this route became its #14.)

The birth of the #496

RTD Line #496

RTD Line #496, eff. April 10, 1988

Development continued throughout the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, and traffic increased to the point that RTD needed to reconfigure service again. In April 1976, RTD replaced the venerable #60 with two new lines. #480 would operate along the San Bernardino Freeway to Pomona, providing local stops along its route. #496 would operate along the freeway to Riverside and San Bernardino. Interestingly, while #496 would make stops in Los Angeles County cities (El Monte, West Covina, Pomona), it would only carry passengers destined to either Sa

n Bernardino or Riverside County. Los Angeles County-only passengers were usually told in no uncertain terms to take the #480, although an occasional sympathetic driver on a late night #496 might carry a passenger to Pomona Park-Ride after the last of the commuter buses had left Downtown LA for the evening.

For the next fourteen years, #496 made its rounds between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, with only a few minor changes made to the route (most notably, service in downtown Pomona was dropped, and buses only stopped at the Pomona Park-Ride lot).

Inland Empire Connection bus. Charles P. Hobbs photo

Inland Empire Connection bus

The Inland Empire Connection
As the end of the 1980s approached, transit agencies started to consider contracting with private bus companies to provide service at a lower cost. (The private companies saved cost by paying drivers less than the public operators did). In Southern California, “Foothill Transit” and “Commuter Express,” both of which contracted with private operators, had both begun service in late 1987. These new bus operations attracted riders who had formerly shunned RTD buses.

In 1990, the transit agencies of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino County decided to turn the #496 over to a private contractor. By August 20 of that year, the red-and-orange striped RTD buses had been replaced with the large blue coaches of the “Inland Empire Connection” (IEC), a joint effort of the three transit commissions. Since the operating cost of the service was about half that of RTD, there was enough money for a second route. This new route, dubbed #110, operated directly along the freeway between Montclair and San Bernardino; passengers destined to/from San Bernardino no longer had to swing through Riverside along the way. Jointly, IEC #110 and #496 provided service every 30 minutes between Los Angeles and Montclair. As with the RTD-operated #496, neither bus carried passengers entirely within Los Angeles County.

The beginning of the end
About three years later, the Los Angeles County transit agency, now known as the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), began to rethink their involvement with IEC. Financial difficulties were causing the MTA to consider cutting service and raising fares. Also the Metrolink commuter rail system now carried commuters from San Bernardino and Riverside, causing IEC ridership to drop. By October 1993, MTA reduced funding for the IEC by half. This meant that the #110 and #496 would operate only every other trip west of Montclair to Los Angeles. In June 1994, MTA had cut all IEC funding and buses traveled only as far as Montclair. Passengers continuing further westward were forced to transfer to MTA, Foothill Transit, or Metrolink.

Next, Riverside County decided to pull support for the IEC, in favor of its local services.
In July 1995, the Riverside Transit Agency (RTA) started a new route, #49, over #496’s Mission Blvd route segment. between Riverside and Country Village (a large retirement home just north of the Pomona Freeway). #496 continued to run to Riverside, but during peak hours only via the freeway. Midday riders had to transfer between the #496 and #49 at Country Village. Occasionally the #496 would miss its connection with the last #49 leaving Country Village, stranding passengers.

Omnitrans  also decided to focus its resources on local transit. In January 1997, Omnitrans dropped funding for #496, and started a new route, #71 between Montclair and Country Village. (The bus agency decided to keep the #110, which operated entirely in San Bernardino County.) #71 was a local, surface-street route, taking longer than the freeway-express #496. That meant that not only did passengers still have to transfer, but their trips took longer.

Since #71 also ran weekdays only, the Riverside County Transportation Commission funded weekend-only service on #496 during 1997. As RTA seemed uncommitted to reinstating the #496, RCTC considered contracting with Foothill Transit to provide the service. But no agreement with Foothill could be reached. Meanwhile, all the cutbacks and other changes to #496 had caused ridership to plummet.

As the last #496 completed its trip in January 1998, RCTC chairman Bob Buster, contemplating the slow dismantling of what had been a productive bus route, remarked, “Los Angeles is like a modern-day Roman Empire, and Rome takes care of itself first and the provinces last.”

Express service between Riverside and San Bernardino (IEC #100) still operated, and passengers from Montclair could still use IEC #110 to San Bernardino, then transfer to #100 for the trip to Downtown Riverside. But this was still a longer trip than the former #496. #110 continued to operate, with a few stop changes (Ontario Airport was dropped, while new stops at Ontario Mills Mall, Kaiser Hospital Fontana and the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center were added), until July 2007. At that point, Omnitrans cut the Montclair-San Bernardino portion, leaving only the segment between Riverside and San Bernardino as the last remnant of what had been an extensive complex of bus routes operating between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire for over ninety years.

The return of 496…well, sort of
On September 2, 2003, RTA implemented four new long-distance express bus routes. These services, dubbed “Commuterlink,” were marketed toward business commuters. Commuterlink #204 operates between Riverside and Montclair on a route very similar to that of the old #496. In 2008, RTA extended #204 to the UC Riverside campus in an attempt to increase ridership.

Nowadays, if you can use #204, it is possible to get to Riverside easily. But #204 is strictly a peak-hour, weekday only service. Another alternative is Metrolink, but its reverse-commute trains are nowhere near as frequent as the old #110 and #496. Also, because the Riverside and (particularly) the San Bernardino stations are some distance from the downtown areas, prepare to walk or take a local bus to get to your destination.

Or, piece together local bus trips on Omnitrans and RTA, and hope the connections work out well…

References:

Bail, Eli, From Railway to Freeway: Pacific Electric and the Motor Coach.

“Expedited Service to Come on Lines 60 and 63 June 14.” MTA Emblem, May 1964, p. 9

Transit Advocate, July 1996, p. 3 (http://www.socata.net/advocate9607.pdf)

Pund, Ernest E. “Bus Route 496 rolls to LA for last time.” Riverside Press-Enterprise, January 29, 1998.

Welsh, John. “New buses to serve longer routes.” Riverside Press-Enterprise, June 26, 2003.

Western Transit (newsletter of the Western Transit Society), as appropriate

Bus schedules, maps, agency agendas, etc. as appropriate

Comments and corrections welcomed. Some details was necessarily left out or glossed over.

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Title:

Date: Wednesday May 12, 4:06 pm

Everyone knows that the best French Dip sandwiches in LA are at either Phillipe’s or Cole’s, right?

Maybe.

But there existed a third French Dip restaurant of little-known historical significance. It was located in a large building at the southeast corner of Figueroa and Santa Barbara (now Martin Luther King), just south of Downtown.

Probably the first time I even saw the term “French Dip” was when we drove by that building in the early 1970s.   (I still wasn’t sure what a French Dip was back then.  Something ladies did with their hair? It could have been a beauty salon for all I knew :-) )

Of course, a lot more than roast beef au jus was going on in this building. This was also the location of the National Technical Schools, at one time, one of the largest trade schools in the U.S.

Vrena Bender Rosenkrantz founded the school, which was originally named “National School of Engineering,” in 1905. Back then, automobiles were very uncommon and regarded with suspicion. At best, they were considered toys for the eccentric. And they certainly were not considered part of a woman’s domain back in those days either. But she saw the future potential of the automobile and decided to open up a school anyway.

Her first class, in a small building just west of Downtown, had only three students. Tuition was twenty-five dollars.

Over the next few years, however, the number of automobiles grew dramatically, and more and more students came to the school to learn how to repair their cars. As Vrena added instructors and programs, more space was needed. The school moved at least three times in Downtown Los Angeles. Finally, Vrena and her husband Joseph, who had taken over management of the school in 1920, purchased land at Figueroa and Santa Barbara Avenues and built a new building to house the ever-expanding school.

The new building opened in April 1923.  At the time, this three-story edifice was the largest building west of Kansas City. It was designed and built by Meyer and Holler, a firm famous for many other notable buildings in Southern Callifornia, including the Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian Theaters.  The outside of the Italian-styled building featured several arches. Some of the building’s street frontage was rented out to shops, including the French Dip restaurant I mentioned earlier.

For the students, there were classrooms, laboratories, workshops, dormitories, a library and a gymnasium. It also had a public garage, where customers could have their cars repaired by students.  Over 200 students could receive instruction at one time.

The school advertised heavily in technical magazines such as Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. Prospective students needed little prodding to, as one ad read, “come to Los Angeles … where wintertime is like a glorious summer day.”

The automotive school also offered correspondence courses to students across the country and all over the world.  Some of the correspondence courses were offered in Spanish and the Rosenkranzes opened a campus in Mexico City. There were also plans for a new campus along Exposition Boulevard between La Brea and Crenshaw. However, school officials decided to expand the Figueroa Blvd. campus instead.

As technology advanced, the Automotive School added programs in aviation, radio repair, and radio broadcasting. When Diesel engines became practical in the mid-1930’s, the school had to expand rapidly to accommodate the influx of students interested in learning about these engines.

During World War II, the school trained hundreds of soldiers as radio technicians, electricians, and automobile mechanics. In late 1942, the school and its officials were indicted in Federal court for trying to defraud the government; after a three-day trial, the officials were acquitted of the charges because of lack of evidence of any wrongdoing.

After the war ended, enrollment swelled as returning soldiers used their G.I. Bill benefits to pay for education. As the post-war economy regained its consumer focus, there was more demand for automobiles—and people to repair them. Television was another growing post-war industry, and the school added programs in television repair. Classes in home appliance repair, and heating/ventilation/air conditioning, were also implemented to meet the need for repairmen.

In addition to the school, the Rosenkranzes participated in many charitable pursuits, both Jewish and secular. Joseph was a founding director of the Los Angeles Sanitarium in Duarte. (This institution became the City of Hope in 1949.) A few years before his death in 1948, he wrote several motivational books. Vrena was a longtime supporter of the California Home for the Aged in Reseda (now known as the Los Angeles Jewish Home). The Rosenkranzes had two sons: Louis became a director of the Los Angeles campus, while Samuel worked for the school in Mexico City.

In late 1959, the school changed its name to “National Technical Schools (NTS).” Ownership and control of the institution passed to its employees. Over the next three decades, NTS became increasingly dependent, on government funding. Soldiers returning from Korea and Vietnam brought in more G.I bill money; other students used federal and/or state financial aid to pay the tuition. The high-tech 1980s brought new courses in computer programming and repair and even robotics.

An Encino-based company, United Education and Software (UES) bought NTS in late 1985. UES already operated twelve other trade schools in California under the “Pacific Coast College” name. Initially, UES, which had been struggling, got a financial boost from the NTS acquisition. Unfortunately, things did not go well for either NTS or UES for long.

The US Department of Education audited NTS’ programs during 1987 and 1988, and found that one of its courses was too short to meet federal standards. The school was also sued by several students and the state Attorney General, accusing it of misrepresenting course content, job placement, and tuition costs, admitting academically unprepared students, and not properly refunding student loan money to students who had dropped out. NTS was temporarily barred from accepting any government financial aid. By December 1989, UES had filed for bankruptcy. NTS and several of the other UES campuses shut down.

The ornate, Italian-styled building remained until it was demolished in 1998. Today, a Chevron station and a McDonalds restaurant now occupy the site of what had been.

And no, they don’t serve French Dips.

Sources (roughly in order of appearance):

Los Angeles City Directories, 1915, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1929

“School for Auto Seen in Mexico.” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1927

“Local School Has New Home.” Los Angeles Times, Dec 10, 1922

“National Automotive School Celebrates Formal Opening of New Three Story Building.” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1923

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_&_Holler [accessed May 12, 2010]

“School Now to Occupy More Room.” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1935

“School Quarters Being Improved.” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1935

“New Diesel Class Ready.” Los Angeles Times, Aug 25, 1935

“Diesel Engines Stir Interest.” Los Angeles Times, Oct 6, 1935

“Engineering School for Southwest Area.” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1936

“Lynn Named Radio Coach.” Los Angeles Times, Jan 26, 1936

“Auto Schools Now Occupying New Addition.” Los Angeles Times, Jul 19, 1936

“Diesel Training Gains In Demand.” Los Angeles Times, Nov 8, 1936

“Army Technical Men Graduate.” Los Angeles Times, Sep 25, 1942

“Schools Training Radio Men for Army Indicted.” Los Angeles Times, Oct 29, 1942
”Trio Accused of Fraud Attempt Found Innocent.” Los Angeles Times, Apr 16, 1943

“White Plague Their Battle.” Los Angeles Times, Feb 16, 1914

“Re-elected.” Los Angeles Times, Aug 2, 1935

Motivational Books by Joseph Rosenkranz

“Trade Schools Executive Dies.” Los Angeles Times, Jan 27, 1948

“Mrs. Vrena Rosenkranz Services Set.” Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1963

Advertisements in Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Popular Electronics ,etc. – just about every issue of these magazines had an ad for this school. In fact, just about any magazine with a predominately male readership would have these ads.

“Two trade-school companies agreed to combine.” Los Angeles Times, Sep 20, 1985

“Computer Marketing Plans Fail to Make Grade.” Los Angeles Times, Oct 1, 1985

“United Education Reports 142% Rise in 2nd Quarter.” Los Angeles Times, Aug 26, 1986

Singh, Umendra. “Correspondence Course in Computers Draws Fire.” Seattle Times, Dec 8, 1987

Apodaca, Patrice. “U.S. Halts Loans for Trade School Run by UES.” Los Angeles Times, Oct 17, 1989

“Court Lifts UES Exclusion From Loan Program.” Los Angeles Times, Oct 24, 1989

“Suit-Troubled Trade School Poorly Run, Critics Charge.” Los Angeles Times, Nov 28, 1989.

Apodaca, Patrice. “Trade School Operator Files for Protection.” Los Angeles Times, Dec 6, 1989

Apodaca, Patrice. “2 Years of Problems Pushed United Education into Reorganization.” Los Angeles Times, Dec 13, 1989

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Title:

Date: Sunday April 18, 10:38 am

Sometime in the mid-1950s, a local wag noticed the “Wildasin” station on the Santa Fe Harbor Subdivision rail line, near Slauson and Normandie Avenues. He conjectured that the name was derived from “Wild As Sin, ” and imagined that at one time it might have been a neighborhood of ill repute, where people went to have a “rip-snorting good time.”

Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Magadalena Wildasin (pronounced WIL-da-sun), who had lived in the area since her birth in 1888. “Please be advised that the vicinity of Slauson Ave and Wildasin Station on the Santa Fe never was ‘Wild-As-Sin, ” she wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “On the contrary, it was a beautiful, peaceful farming community populated by the finest types of Americans.”

John Wildasin, the fourth child of Samuel and Catherine Wildasin, was born in 1851 in Muscatine County, Iowa. In 1875, he took over his father’s cattle business and operated it until 1884.

John Wildasin married Magadalena Crusius on October 12, 1878. In 1884, the Wildasins moved to Los Angeles, and bought a forty-acre plot of land near Slauson and Normandie. The tract had good railroad access via the Santa Fe line along Slauson. The Wildasins raised dairy cattle, alfalfa, fruit and other produce. In later years, Wildasin subdivided the property and sold several lots, but maintained the family residence between 57th and 58th Streets, just east of Normandie. (The portion of 58th near the property was actually named Wildasin Avenue at first.)

By all accounts, Wildasin, as well as the people who bought lots and lived near him, were average, straight-laced, conservative farmers. They occasionally got involved in local politics, but for the most part, concentrated on farming.

The Wildasins had three daughters: Louesa, Florence Nightingale, and Magdalena May. They (as far as I can tell) never married or had children, but continued to live on the Wildasin ranch long after their parents had passed away (John in 1928 and Magdalena in 1943). Magadalena in particular was part of the Los Angeles social scene, and was active in organizations such as the Native Daughters of the Golden West, a patriotic group for pioneer Californians.

The neighborhood around the Wildasin lands started to change in the 1930s. More houses began to appear, and farming eventually gave way to light industry. A lumberyard occupied the area near the railroad for many years. The social upheaveals of the 1960s and 1970s also brought changes to the neighborhood, which became poorer and increasingly crime-ridden.

Magdalena was a product of her era and upbringing and simply could not approve of many aspects of “modern” life in her later years. When film star Ingrid Bergman returned to the United States in 1950 after having an affair with an Italian film director, Magdalena wrote a letter in the Los Angeles Times condemning Bergman for “flout[ing] and defy[ing] the moral code,” and lamenting the effects of her behavior on young people. In another letter, she wrote “If the young people before World War I and before World War II had acted in the uncivilized manner in which they are acting today, we would have no United States of America today.” But she also did what she could to help, for example, being a frequent donor to a fund enabling disadvantaged children to go to summer camp. Magadalena died in 1987, almost a year shy of her 100th birthday.

Today, the Wildasin lands play host to various uses, including houses dating back to the 1930s, as well as apartment buildings, auto repair shops and other small businesses. The old Wildasin homestead is long gone, and a large apartment house now occupies the site.

Even the name Wildasin is fading from public memory, although official LA City Planning documents still refer to the area as the “Wildasin Tract.”

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (“Metro”) now owns the former Santa Fe railroad tracks along Slauson. The transit agency has proposed using it for light rail or other transit project. Doing so would both improve transportation and encourage redevelopment opportunities in this neglected area.

Sources:

Guinn, James Miller. History of the State of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties. p. 620

http://genforum.genealogy.com/wilderson/messages/44.html

“Ham On Ryon” Los Angeles Times, Nov 7, 1955 and Nov 21, 1955 (origin of name)

“LA DOW ” Los Angeles Times, Oct 3, 1896

Los Angeles Times, Oct 9, 1928 (John’s obit)

Los Angeles Times, Nov 11, 1943 (Magadalena’s obit)

“Story Concerning Ingrid Bergman Draws Comments from Readers”  Los Angeles Times, Feb 10, 1957

Wildasin, Magdalena. “Disappointed by Youth [letter]” Los Angeles Times, Oct 23, 1967

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Title:

Date: Sunday March 21, 2:10 pm

Street names have changed over the years in Los Angeles. Knowing the old as well as the new names is important to the transit historian. For example, While many people know that Martin Luther King Bl. used to be known as Santa Barbara Ave., fewer know that Broadway south of Downtown was originally named Moneta Ave.

A few recommended sites:
Los Angeles in the 1900s: Streets of a Hundred Years Ago by George Garrigues (http://www.ulwaf.com/LA-1900s/SpecialReports/Streets.html). Based on a 1903 Chamber of Commerce map.

“Street Names: Are They Sacred?” (Bottleneck Blog, Los Angeles Times)

Rasmussen, Ceciia.  “The Long and the Short of the Southland’s Street Names” (Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2006)

Youtube Video: Street Names of Los Angeles, Seaver Center, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Part1, Part2, and Part3)

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Title:

Date: Tuesday March 16, 8:11 pm

http://www.timetables.org/

(A nearly complete set of Amtrak timetables from its beginning in May 1971…)

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Title:

Date: Monday March 1, 1:54 pm

Map of RTD 470/471, December 1994

Map of RTD 470/471, December 1994

Due to the lack of state funding, Foothill Transit may cancel its Route #285, between La Puente and La Habra via Whittier. If #285 is cancelled, and if no other transit agency steps in to replace it, the two-mile stretch of Whitter Bl. between Whitwood Mall and the county line at Beach Bl will be left without transit service.

As I looked at Foothill’s proposal, I thought about the long and interesting history of transit service along the Whittier Bl. corridor.

Streetcar service on what was then called Stephenson Street started in 1903, between Boyle Ave. and Indiana St. This service was extended into downtown Los Angeles in 1910, when the 7th Street bridge over the Los Angeles River opened. Los Angeles Railway through-routed the Whittier Bl streetcar with the West 3rd Street car line, and designated Route “R.” This route lasted through the Los Angeles Transit Lines era (1945-1958)/ The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMTA) kept the streetcar going until 1963, when it was converted into a bus route and numbered #28.

Route “R” and #28 provided local service within a few miles of downtown. Buses (also known as “stages”—as in stagecoach) served longer distance trips along Whittier Bl from the mid-1910s.

A variety of bus companies, using modified cars and trucks of all descriptions, fanned out from downtown Los Angeles in those days. Many of these outfits were not particularly well-run businesses, and ended up going bankrupt, or taken over by stronger companies.

P&E Stage Line (the name meant “Package and Express”) was an early bus company that ran along Whittier Boulevard from Los Angeles to Fullerton. After a bad year in 1916, P&E sold its buses back to the dealer and went out of business.

The dealer,  Mr. O.R. Fuller, decided to try his hand at the bus business, and reactivated the Whittier Bl. route in early 1917. Fuller was apparently successful at this new venture; by 1924, his bus system, named “Motor Transit” was the largest bus system in California. Motor Transit operated all over Southern California: east to Riverside, San Bernardino and the mountains; south through Orange County to San Diego; and north via the Ridge Route to Bakersfield.

Motor Transit’s Whittier line left downtown Los Angeles from a depot at 5th and Los Angeles Streets, then headed east along Whittier Bl. Since the streetcar also ran along Whittier, Motor Transit was not allowed to provide local service along Whittier until the end of the streetcar line. The first unrestricted stop was at Indiana St. (This restriction remained in place, under Pacific Electric, Metropolitan Coach, LAMTA and RTD operation, until early 1976!)

Going eastward, Motor Transit served the communities along Whittier Bl, such as Montebello, Pico (now Pico Rivera), and “Guadalupe Hidalgo” (aka Jimtown). The route left Whittier Bl to serve central Whittier, then returned to the boulevard, serving East Whittier, crossing into Orange County, through Des Moines (now La Habra), Stewart (now part of Brea), Brea and Fullerton before the final stop in Anaheim. Passengers could continue southward as far as San Diego on certain trips as well.

These were the days before freeways and suburban sprawl; riders on these buses saw little but fields and orchards between the towns. Motor Transit made good time on the (mostly?) two-lane roads; the trip from Los Angeles to Anaheim took about an hour and a half.

Fuller sold Motor Transit to the Greyhound Bus Corporation in 1929. Greyhound took over Motor Transit’s long distance routes (e.g. San Diego, Bakersfield, Victorville), leaving Motor Transit as a suburban bus system. Pacific Electric later bought Motor Transit and replaced certain underperforming rail lines with bus routes. Pacific Electric also decided to number its bus routes in 1943; all of the bus routes operating between Los Angeles and Santa Ana, were called Route #58. The Whittier Bl. route was designated #58W.

In 1966, the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) renumbered Route #58 to #72. The new number was not only much less confusing, but also more appropriate as Whittier Blvd had been designated California State Highway 72 in 1963.

Big changes came to Whittier Bl. bus service in 1976. In response to increasing traffic levels on Whittier Bl. in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, RTD modified routes #28 and #72. #28 was extended to Garfield Bl. in Montebello. Whittier Bl. east of Garfield was served by a new line #820, which ran express via the Pomona Freeway from Downtown Los Angeles to Garfield, Whittier, and via the old #72 route to La Habra. A branch of the #820 went northeast along Colima Road towards La Puente, ending at the Puente Hills Mall.

Why La Habra and not all the way to Fullerton? In 1972, Orange County began operating its own countywide bus service. As the new Orange County Transit District (OCTD) grew, it assumed the operation of several former RTD bus routes. The Whittier bus route, which had historically ran all the way to Fullerton, was cut back to La Habra. (In 1980, #820 was extended to Brea to serve the new Brea Mall.)

The early 1980s also brought RTD’s “Great Renumbering.” Route #28 became #18; Route #820 was renumbered to #470 on the La Habra/Brea branch, and #471 for the La Puente branch.

This combination of #18 (serving local trips between LA and Garfield Ave) and #470/471 handling the longer-distance trips continued, with only occasional minor changes, until 1998. By that time, RTD had become known as “Metro,” and traffic conditions on the Pomona Freeway had increased so much that transit officials thought that a limited stop bus would be faster than a freeway express. In June 1988, #470 was replaced with #318, a limited-stop bus route running along Whittier Bl all the way to Brea. #471 became a shuttle route between Whittier and La Puente.

In June 2000, Metro began implementing its “Rapid Bus “ program. A Rapid Bus was a limited-stop bus, except with traffic-signal priority (buses nearly always got a green light) as well as greater stop spacing, giving the bus a higher average speed. Rapid #720 ran from Santa Monica to Los Angeles via Wilshire Bl, then continued eastward via Whittler to the Monebello Metrolink station. Since the Rapid Bus provided higher-speed service along Whittier, Metro saw no need for the #318. Instead, local route #18 was extended eastward from Garfield to Whittier, along essentially the old #72 route.

This left the Brea and Puente Hills branches of the old #470/471. Metro extended the #471 along Whitter into Brea. Now a trip from LA to Brea would require at least one transfer if taking the local #18, or two transfers if using the Rapid bus (once at Garfield from #720 to #18, then again at Whitwood Mall to catch the #470)

In the next few years, service along Whittier Bl. became even more complicated. In mid-2002, Metro cut back all #18 service (except late night) to Montebello Metrolink, leaving service east of that point to be operated by Montebello Bus Lines. (Montebello Bus has an extensive history of its own, which I will cover in a later post.) And in 2004, Metro turned over the #471 route to Foothill Transit, which renumbered it #285. The Foothill route goes no farther than Beach Bl, requiring a transfer to OCTA for trips to Brea Mall.

Since 2004, a trip from Downtown Los Angeles to Brea Mall via Whittier has required not only three changes of bus, but the use of four different transit agencies:
Metro #18 or #720 to Garfield
Montebello #10 to Whitwood Mall
Foothill #285 to Beach Boulevard
OCTA #29 to Brea Mall.

Such a trip would take nearly three hours, including all transfer waits. And I won’t even get started on the differing fare/transfer policies among all these different agencies.

Somehow, I don’t think O.R. Fuller would be too happy with this development….

Sources (most available at Metro Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library):
Vandeventer, Ed, Routes of the Los Angeles Railway (http://www.oerm.org/pages/LARy%20History.htm)
Bail, Eli. From Railway to Freeway (Motor Transit history)
Western Transit (newsletter of the Western Transit Society)
Southern California Association of Governments. Transit Development Program.
(contains histories of bus routes up to 1971)
Jones, Lionel. Los Angeles Bus Line History Book (updated route histories as of 2004)

Comments, corrections or suggestions (to cover another bus line history) welcomed!

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Title:

Date: Wednesday February 3, 10:41 am

The California Railroad Commission was formed in 1911 to regulate railroads. In 1912 it was empowered to regulate other public utilities such as electric companies, water companies and gas companies. Regulation of buses and trucks started in May 1917. In 1943, the Railroad Commission was renamed the Public Utilities Commission.

The Commission maintains jurisdiction over private bus lines serving more than one city.
(Bus companies operating entirely within one city are not subject to the Commission rules.) For the most part, Commission jurisdiction over publicly-owned transit agencies (such as Los Angeles Metro or San Francisco Muni) is limited. However, the Commission does regulate highway-railroad grade crossings, and the safety of all rail transit systems in California, from Angels Flight to BART.

When a bus operator wanted to add, delete or change a route, or raise fares, it would have to file with the Commission, which would make a decision as to whether or not to allow the change. These decisions are listed in books labeled “Decisions of the Railroad / Public Utilities Commission.” Dates and volumes are as follows:

V1 (Jan 1, 1911) to V46 (Aug 28, 1945) (under old CRC name, first series)
V47 (Nov 15, 1946) to V84 (May 2 1978) (CPUC, first series)
V1 (Dec 12, 1978) to V86 (Apr 1, 1999) – second series (red label)
V1 (June 1999) to V8 (Sept 7, 2000) – third series (blue label)

Decisions from July 2000 onward are available online at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/cyberdocs/webQuickStart.asp?SearchID=2

For most transportation historians, the first series is probably most interesting. This covers the years from the early streetcar, jitney and intercity “motor stage lines,” up until the last of the pirate companies were acquired by public transit agencies. Later volumes deal more with airport shuttles, limos, or even airlines (until deregulation in the late 1970s).

The 1911-1922 books are available as full text through Google Books.  (Search “Decisions of the California Railroad Commission.”) The Commission, however, did not regulate highway transportation until May 1917, so start looking there for information on early bus lines.

From 1923 onward, most larger law libraries in California have at least some of the volumes. The Los Angeles County Law Library has all of the volumes in closed stacks; these can be requested from the counter staff. Be sure to specify both volume and series when requesting volumes.

UCLA and USC have nearly full sets in their law libraries as well. These are on open shelves (USC uses a movable shelving system). Beware of restricted access, especially around law school exam time. Volumes are also available at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) at UCLA, either in person (long walk!) or by requesting them at any campus library (takes a couple of days).

Other county law libraries should have these volumes, although their sets tend to be incomplete.

Flip through the books or use the indexes (several of the volumes have separate indexes for “Automobile Stage” or “Passenger Stages”).

Although all of the Commission’s decisions are referenced, not all are actually printed in full in the volumes. Copies of any decision not printed in full can be obtained by writing to the Commission at the following address:

Public Utilities Commission
State of California
505 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102

There is a twenty-cent per page copying charge, which will be invoiced separately.  Decisions range from one to six pages. Be aware that large orders (more than one or two decisions) may take several weeks to complete.

Other options include visiting the Commission offices in person, or searching for decisions and other Commission materials in library collections. Try a search on Worldcat or in the Online Archive of California.

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Title:

Date: Saturday January 16, 11:11 pm

The story was in the January 12, 2010 Santa Barbara News Press: “Greyhound On The Move.” Greyhound is closing its Santa Barbara terminal, and, at this point in time, doesn’t know where in Santa Barbara it will stop.

On a Greyhound enthusiast’s mailing list, a retired Greyhound employe  describes the Santa Barbara Greyhound station as a very busy place in the 1960s and 1970s. It was open twenty-four hours a day, and featured a Post House Restaurant (a sit-down diner), which was also open around the clock. There were plenty of spare buses and drivers stationed at the terminal, as ridership from Santa Barbara was so high that additional service was frequently needed. And there were so many buses laying over at night that they often had to park in the street.

When I was at UC Santa Barbara (1983-1987), the Greyhound station was still a busy place. It was *the* way for us carless students to get home, other than the ride board or having our parents come pick us up. (Most of us reserved that last choice for the beginning and end of the school quarter, when we had to move all our stuff in/out of the dorms.)

I, and many of my fellow students would catch the SBMTD bus (preferably the express #24, but usually the slower #11 local) from campus to the downtown transit center, then walk over to Greyhound (right next door) and catch a bus for home (in my case, Los Angeles, where I would either catch a bus to the San Gabriel Valley or be picked up.)

I don’t recall the station being open 24/7, but I rarely hung around Downtown much later than the last SBMTD bus (10:30 pm) anyway.

The Post House had been replaced with a Burger King (also owned by Greyhound), then the space was left vacant for a long time. Passengers wanting a snack break had to walk over to the gas station across the street. (In rmore ecent years a convenience store occupied the space.)

There were lots of trips (around 20 round trips per day) between LA and Santa Barbara. About half of these continued north to San Luis Obispo and the Bay Area.

There were also quite a few non-stop runs between LA and Santa Barbara, covering the trip in two hours, about the same as driving. Other trips took the scenic route along Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu. PCH trips stopped in Santa Monica, then continued to LA. Sometimes, I’d ride to Santa Monica, have lunch there, and then take the Santa Monica Blue Bus #10 to LA.

And fellow riders were nice. They were mostly students and retirees, along with the occasional family. No bums or “I just got out of jail” scary types. Maybe Greyhounds though the Central Valley had that crowd, but not on the coast.

There were a few low points, though. The downtown terminal in LA was ok, not a place any normal person would want to hang around in more than necessary, but ok. But the neighborhood it was in was Skid Row. Leaving the terminal, I had two choices: get tough or get rich enough to afford another Greyhound ticket to someplace decent, like Claremont. (Some trips stopped in Glendale, so I often used that station instead.) If we arrived during daylight hours, I’d power-walk the 7-8 blocks north to Figueroa, where I could catch an RTD commuter bus to the San Gabriel Valley. At night, I’d pony up the five bucks for a ticket to Claremont.

Also, Greyhound permitted smoking on the bus. (“Cigarettes only, no cigars, no pipes and please no marijuana!”) Smoking was not permitted in certain counties, such as Los Angeles County. On trips to Santa Barbara, the driver would announce when we had left LA County and people could light up. People would have their cigarettes and matches out, just waiting for that “Ventura County” roadside sign….On trips to LA, the driver was supposed to announce when we entered LA County, and smoking would no longer be permitted. However, sometimes the driver forgot (especially on nonstop trips) and people would be smoking all the way into LA.

Smoking was restricted to the back three rows of seats, but just like on an airplane, that smoke got all over the place. I’d step off the bus, and people would think I had been smoking.

Eventually, Greyhound declared all of its buses smoke-free. Thank God! (And Greyhound :-)

I think what hurt Greyhound service in Santa Barbara includes the following:

1. Amtrak. When I was in Santa Barbara, the only Amtrak service was the Coast Starlight. It was expensive ($25 one-way to Greyhound’s $15), required reservations, and was known to run very late at times.

Another issue was the location of the Santa Barbara Amtrak station. Not only was it located several blocks from the center of Santa Barbara, but it was also on the “wrong side” of US-101. This freeway was actually a surface street through much of Santa Barbara, due to city opposition to freeway construction. It could take up to twenty minutes for State Street traffic to get a green light and cross US-101. (Eventually Caltrans built an underpass, which opened in 1991)

The Santa Barbara Amtrak station was also in poor condition, and the surrounding area was a huge homeless encampment.

A few years after I had left UCSB, Amtrak (with the help of the State of California) extended certain LA-San Diego trains northward to Santa Barbara. The station was repaired and cleaned up, and the homeless were encouraged to move elsewhere.

In later years, additional stations opened in Goleta (near the UCSB campus) and Carpinteria, providing more travel choices. Amtrak’s fares, while still higher than Greyhound’s, aren’t onerously so. Union Station in Downtown LA is much nicer than the Greyhound station. It offers more travel connections (Amtrak, Metrolink, Metro Rail, and city buses of various stripes) than the Greyhound station does.

Besides, [railfan mode on] It’s A Train, Not A Bus! [railfan mode off]

2. Santa Barbara Airbus. This company started off running van shuttles between Goleta/Santa Barbara/Carpinteria and LAX. As ridership increased, Airbus upgraded its equipment to cutaways, then to full-size coaches.

While it was possible to get to LAX using Greyhound (a LAX shuttle bus had a dedicated stall in the LA Greyhound station), the Santa Barbara Airbus was faster and did not require a change of buses.

3. Commuter Buses. Housing in Santa Barbara started to get expensive in the 1980s, leading many people to buy homes in Lompoc, Buellton, Santa Maria or Ventura, and commute to their jobs in Santa Barbara. Most of these people drove, while a few car- or vanpooled. But a few might have used, or at least considered using, Greyhound to get between these outlying areas and Santa Barbara.

Instead, the Santa Barbara Air Quality District set up a commuter bus system, with routes to Lompoc, Santa Maria and Ventura, in the early 1990′s. This system was named “Clean Air Express“, and still exists to this day. Clean Air Express buses are scheduled to meet workplace schedules in Santa Barbara, something Greyhound, to my knowledge, never attempted.

4. Changing Demographics. The Santa Barbara of the 60′s, 70′s, and even the early 80′s was a more down-to-earth sort of place. Bike paths crisscrossed the UCSB campus. UCSB students were proud to not have their campus covered with parking structures, unlike UCLA, Cal (Berkeley), etc.

The increasing cost of housing and living in Santa Barbara meant that most people moving to Santa Barbara in recent years were “money people,” not particularly interested in using Greyhound service. This affected UCSB too; rising tuition costs brought in a crop of more affluent students. Most of these students owned cars, and demanded more parking on campus.

5. Greyhound itself. Greyhound used to be considered a normal, if slightly lower-to-middle class, way to travel. The advent of cheap air flights (Southwest, et. al.) took away most of that ridership, leaving Greyhound with increasingly down-market customers. The rundown condition and skid-row location of many Greyhound terminals (not Santa Barbara, but places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, other large cities like New York, etc.) didn’t help any. Neither did the strikes in 1983 and 1991.

At first Greyhound tried to compete with the airlines. I remember a full-page ad in the LA Times comparing Greyhound fares and airfares between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The ad even had pictures of bus and plane seats!

Finally, Greyhound just started cutting service and dropping stations left and right, making it more inconvenient to use the bus. On the LA -Santa Barbara route, Greyhound dropped service to Ventura, Camarillo, and Thousand Oaks along US101. The non-stops were cancelled, as was the entire PCH route through Malibu and Santa Monica.

I am currently planning a trip to Santa Barbara. Most likely I’ll drive, or perhaps take Amtrak. But just for yuks, I went to the Greyhound website and looked at the current schedule.

Five-count ‘em-five trips each way. None of them were particularly convenient, or worth the hassle of getting to the LA Greyhound station.

On the bright side, the price (about $13 one way) is actually a bit lower than what I paid in my UCSB days ($15).

In my opinion, it would be a mistake to move Greyhound from where it is now. It may be very difficult to find a replacement spot near the freeway. Real estate in Santa Barbara is very expensive, and the local NIMBY’s in some areas would violently opposed a Greyhound station in their neighborhood.

The City of Santa Barbara has talked about remodeling the Transit Center for several years, as part of a transit oriented development plan. Currently, some SBMTD buses load and unload on Chapala Street, as there is no room for them in the Transit Center loop.

It is not clear what part, if any, Greyhound will have in such a development.

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