During our Aug. 2001 owl service exploration I promised Director Phil Capo he would be given the opportunity to plan the next owl trip. Eventually it was decided the trip would begin Saturday August 31, 2002. The fish tank in the East Portal building next to Gateway Plaza was settled on as the starting point. By the appointed time (8:30 p.m.) a number of members had arrived - Woody Rosner, Lionel Jones, Armando Avalos, Andy Novak, Alan Michelson, Ken Ruben, Mike Milloy, Dana Gabbard and Phil Capo.

Knowing Mr. Capo's championing of owl service I undertaken a publicity campaign for the event. Much to my surprise this drew the attention of channel 34, one of the local Spanish language channels, with a camera crew showing up at the fish tank. We had enough advance warning to arrange for member Tim Adams to be present to act as our spokesperson. Tim explained to the reporter the purpose of our trip and why transit service being operated during evenings and early morning hours is important. While we were gratified at being able to get our message out, the need to start our trip finally compelled us to race to the nearby Red Line platform and catch the 8:57 p.m. departing train. We deboarded at Pershing Square station and exited just in time to miss the bus we had wanted to catch. So we grabbed a westbound line 18 bus (#7703, a NABI low-floor) with 14 passengers (all ride counts exclude trip participants). This passed thru the active commercial district of Pico Union along Sixth Street. Meanwhile Andy, Armando and Dana much to their dismay had water leaked on them by the air conditioning ducts. After we arrived at Western and Wilshire Ken Ruben bid us farewell and caught a westbound line 20 bus. At 10:10 p.m. we boarded a Metro Rapid line 720 (#7116, NABI low-floor) westbound with a standing load. We deboarded at Westwood Blvd. Woody decided he needed to catch up on his sleep and caught an eastbound line 20 bus. Meanwhile the rest of us at 11 p.m. caught Big Blue Bus route 2 (#3842, a New Flyer low-floor) going south. We jumped off in downtown Santa Monica, at which point Alan Michelson decided to head on home. The rest of us explored the environs before catching the last BBB rt.7 eastbound bus of the night (departing Broadway/4th at 11:50 p.m.). This was another New Flyer low-floor (#3827). At Colorado it had 12 passengers. By the time we were on Ocean Blvd. near the Pier ridership had grown to 18 passengers. As we continued on there was some boarding and deboarding - one highlight (or lowlight) was when Lionel Jones was nearly knocked over by a young woman getting off. As we continued thru West Los Angeles we had a long stretch with no one boarding. Until Fairfax when to our delight member Charles Powell joined our little band of riders. We arrived at Pico-Rimpau Terminal at 12:27 a.m. as scheduled, which is the end of the line. We explored this historic site (originally where Bay City Transit Pico bus service met the Red Cars which were never extended past Rimpau on Pico).

At 12:42 a.m. MTA line 30 pulled up to the boarding platform at the Transit Center. This was yet another NABI low-floor (#7501). 4 passengers boarded besides us. As we went east on Pico I glanced out the window and noticed a number of persons in the street. Than I became aware that various parties were facing off in what looked like an impending street rumble. Much to my relief we continued moving and quickly the street fight was left behind. Soon we arrived in downtown Los Angeles and witnessed the 1 a.m. line-up. We made our way over to 6th and Broadway where line 18 does its layover after midnight. This time we were riding it eastbound; there were only three passengers when the bus (#7462) started its run at 1:10 a.m. As we passed thru the dark night there was some boarding and deboarding but by Atlantic ridership had dwindled to 2 passengers. Surprisingly 4 boarded at Commerce Shopping Center. Near the end of the line most members hopped off at a convenient 7-11 where they spent time with some interesting characters. Meanwhile Dana and Phil rode to the end of the line and the layover in a quiet suburban street for about 10 minutes before pulling out for the trip back to downtown. The others were glad to reboard the bus and shared stories off their experiences at the 7-11. After riding end to end our verdict was the line had very low ridership in owl hours.

Now was the time for a guilty pleasure, as we hopped off the bus at 5th and Hill to catch line 156 which operates into downtown only during late night hours. At 3:13 a.m. we boarded the NABI low-floor (#7512) with 7 passengers and soon we were riding on the freeway segment along the 101 before exiting at Vermont. At Western/Santa Monica Blvd. 5 boarded. After going eastbound on Santa Monica Blvd. with few riders the bus began to fill up when it made the turn onto Highland (evidently a lot of those boarding were patrons of the various clubs in the area that had just shut down for the night). As we continued on toward the San Fernando Valley the load began to ease.

At Ventura Blvd. and Vineland we hopped off to catch the line 150 bus waiting there (this is a timed transfer). It was a 1996 Neoplan (#4579) that departed at 3:50 a.m. As we made our way west along Ventura we witnessed low ridership comparable to what we saw on the line 18 earlier that morning. Shortly after the turn onto Topanga Canyon we hopped off and had breakfast at Denny's. Afterward via line 750 and the Red Line we began going our separate ways. So, should we do another owl trip for summer 2003? And which lines do you think we should explore?