Beach Cities Transit to Drop Line 104

The Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a slew of changes to Beach Cities Transit, including the elimination of Line 104, which goes from the Redondo Beach Pier down to the Hollywood Riviera and east to Del Amo Mall in Torrance.

A half-dozen people—mostly those who live in the Hollywood Riviera part of Torrance—came to the council meeting to protest the plan to discontinue Line 104.

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"I believe that if you eliminate the 104, you eliminate all public transportation to the Riviera Village," said Hollywood Riviera resident Robert Martin.  "The 104 is used by people that are coming to work in Riviera, people that are leaving the Riviera to go elsewhere" like El Camino College or Del Amo.

Martin also expressed concern that the four informational meetings held about the proposed changes violated the state's open-meetings law because the notices announcing the meetings did not explicitly state what the changes were.

Line 104 averages only 46 riders per day during the week. In comparison, the two more popular lines—Line 102 and Line 109—average 709 and 1,355 riders per day. It costs Beach Cities Transit a little less than $11 per passenger to run Line 104.

Once the route is eliminated, its buses and resources will be redirected to the remaining two lines, saving the city about $630,000.

City staff pointed out that Torrance Transit dropped the route in 2005 due to low ridership.

"They made the decision that they don't want to continue operating the route," said Transit Manager Joyce Rooney. She also said that Torrance did not seem to be willing to contribute money to keep the route running.

"It's actually very difficult to get the other cities to contribute to even our high-productivity routes," she said.

The council briefly considered a suggestion to extend Line 109 from Riviera Village into the hills of the Hollywood Riviera; however, Rooney said the streets in the Torrance neighborhood are too narrow for Line 109's 40-foot buses. Line 104 uses the smaller Wave Dial-a-Ride buses.

"We wouldn't be able to put a big transit bus in that community," she said.

Councilmen said that they would support the transit service's changes; however, they weren't happy about it.

"That's the toughest part of the job, when you've got to vote against nice people," said Councilman Steve Aspel.

Nevertheless, members of the council encouraged attendees to lobby Torrance to reinstate the route, even telling Hollywood Riviera residents that they would provide Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto's telephone number. Redondo Beach, councilmen said, could simply not afford to keep it.

"In my experience, when an agency has to cut back, a lot of times people are not appreciative of the services that have been provided," Councilman Steven Diels said. "We are carrying it, and it's not cost effective, and no matter where we make cuts, somebody's going to be impacted."

Diels later commended attendees for their respectful comments.

Other changes to Beach Cities Transit services include increasing bus frequency on Line 102 from every 45 minutes to every 30 minutes. Line 102 will also stop at the South Bay Galleria on both its northbound and southbound routes except during peak rush hours.

Line 109 would serve the Douglas Station at Rosecrans Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach in both directions. Though buses will not be stopping at Manhattan Village, as requested by Manhattan Beach officials, the Line 109 route has been modified to bring buses closer to the mall.

"We think we've found a pretty good compromise with the city," said Redondo Beach Harbor, Business and Transit Director Pete Carmichael. Instead of weaving through the Manhattan Village parking lots, the route will remain on public streets, Carmichael said.

Lastly, Wave Dial-a-Ride service, which serves senior citizens and disabled residents of Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach, will have its hours reduced in the early morning and late evening.

The changes should be completed by April.

Beach Cities Transit is run by Redondo Beach in conjunction with Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo.