Southern California Transit Advocates opposes the proposed Line 902 (Van Nuys Blvd.-North Hollywood Red Line Station Express) Metro intends to implement in December 2009. Our reasons for this position are born of concerns regarding process and policy along with operational issues and customer inconvenience.

We object to the lack of consultation with the Metro San Fernando Valley Service Sector Governance Council regarding a service that will operate in the area they exercise oversight of. In our view this sets a bad precedent and on that basis alone we feel Metro staff should suspend plans to implement the service until proper consultation occurs. Anything less makes a mockery of the Councils and their existence.

While staff is of the opinion that a public hearing is unnecessary because the line is "experimental" and would affect less than 25% of the service in the Van Nuys corridor, we feel that common courtesy and responsible government practice would mandate that, before undertaking such a radical change in the operations along the Valley's mostly highly patronized local bus corridor, a properly noticed hearing should be held. Metro has worked hard to repair its past image of being imperious and out of touch; going forward without a hearing would undo much of the good will Metro had earned these past few years.

As to policy, we are deeply distressed at the indication this is being done at the behest of local elected officials (in this case two Los Angeles City Councilmembers). There is nothing to indicate any statistical or other tangible need is being addressed. Instead this proposal reeks of the sort of self aggrandizing/ribbon cutting mentality that many elected officials have afflicted Metro with over the years, and the history of such services often results in poor performing lines whose sole purpose are providing an additional item for the involved electeds to take credit for when they are up for re-election or seeking a new office.

We feel a technical analysis evaluating travel patterns to establish whether this specialized service is needed should be undertaken before implementation of the line goes forward.

Metro staff's own analysis admits implementing this service will result in the core Van Nuys Blvd. corridor suffering a 14% reduction in seated capacity and headways for local service becoming irregular. To us this begs the question why is this "improvement" to be done if it has direct negative impacts and its value and necessity has not be established?

Having an express operate parallel (and even crossing at one point) the Orange Line will create confusion for passengers where the two services share stops but without shared stop locations (North Hollywood, Valley College and Van Nuys Blvd.) as to where to stand to catch the next bus going where they want to. This seems especially inexcusable given the large investment by the region in the Orange Line.

How can a third of a billion be invested in a busway that now calls for supplemental express service on parallel surface streets a mere four years after opening? This seems to bespeak of defects in the design of the facility or shortcomings in the basic underlying assumptions behind it. In any case, these issues should be explored before any significant investments are undertaken that are born of a need to fix mistakes in the conception or execution of the Orange Line.

In our view the proper response might have been exploring more frequent Line 233 service connecting with the Orange Line to assure seamless travel into the corridor while making the best use of infrastructure investments and minimizing impact on existing passengers. We see this express as a waste of resources whose sole purpose appears to be providing a trophy for short sighted politicians. Metro should serve real needs and the public good. This route proposal, in our view, does neither.