Orange County bus strike averted before planned midnight shutdown
Drivers are being asked to take Metro buses Wednesday for free but there will be free trolley service as part of a plan to run up to 20 hours a day.
A large crowd made its way on foot from Venice Beach Thursday to City Hall as buses were ordered to cease operations around midnight.
The group is asking for Metro to continue to provide bus service between the Venice Transportation Center and the city’s other transit hub. In addition, the group is calling on council members to vote on an ordinance that would keep the city from cutting off services to transit riders.
“I feel like the people have been ignored for so long. It really pisses me off that there are more people with disabilities who are not able to get a ticket without the ticket machine,” said passenger Brian Lohrle, 38, of Venice. “I know that people have had to walk to get to work, and it’s very hard for them to walk to Venice, so what would have been the point of sending them on their merry way to work if it’s not going to be a pleasant ride at all. I feel like the whole city got screwed on this.”
Transit officials have not yet said how they plan to service the many people who will not be able to get the public trolley. Metro says it doesn’t have the resources to do a massive overhaul of the system.
“We have to make sure the system does not break in the meantime. We know there’s going to be a lot of people who need to be able to access city services. I need to know how we can make that happen,” said Supervisor Scott Wiener’s chief of staff, Richard Sanders.
Sanders says the city has been “waiting on Metro to respond” to three recent requests from Lohrle’s group to provide bus service to transit riders who don’t have a ticket.
The group has called for free public trolley service for the next three weekends. They are especially asking for free service on weekends starting June 1 due to work and school vacations