Long Beach Transit
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (June 2010) |
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 Long Beach Transit New Flyer D60LF |
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| Founded | 1963 |
| Headquarters | 1963 East Anaheim Street |
| Locale | Long Beach, CA |
| Service type | Bus service |
| Routes | 34 fixed routes and Passport A, B, C & D |
| Fleet | 220 |
| Daily ridership | 82,900 (Q4 2010) [1] |
| Fuel type | Diesel, Gasoline-electric hybrid, CNG |
| Operator | Long Beach Public Transportation Company |
| Web site | lbtransit.com |
Long Beach Transit is a municipal transit company providing fixed and flexible bus transit services in Long Beach, California, United States, other communities in South and Southeast Los Angeles County and Northwestern Orange County. Long Beach Transit also operates the Passport shuttle, Aquabus, and Aqualink. The service, while operated on behalf of the City of Long Beach, is not operated directly by the city (such as is done with the bus service operated by the City of Santa Monica), but by a separate corporation ("Long Beach Public Transportation Company") operated for that purpose.
Long Beach Transit receives its operating revenue from farebox receipts and state tax revenue distributed by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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[edit] Zero-fare bus routes
Long Beach has several zero-fare Passport bus routes, which use mini-buses to shuttle passengers within the downtown area. The Passport "C" route between the downtown, The Aquarium, The Pine Avenue Circle, Shorline Village, and the Queen Mary, and Passport "A" and "D" buses go East-West along Ocean Boulevard, linking the Catalina Landing in the west with Alamitos Bay or Los Altos via Belmont Shore in the east. A $1.25 fare is required when traveling east of Alamitos Avenue. Another zero-fare route, Passport "B" in the East Village, visits museums and other points of interest. In February 2010, all zero-fare busses will begin charging $0.25 for rides west of Alamitos.
[edit] Water taxis
Long Beach Transit also operates the 49-passenger AquaBus water taxi, which stops at the RMS Queen Mary, West Coast Hotel of Long Beach, Catalina Landing, Aquarium of the Pacific, the Pine Avenue Circle, and Shorline Village (The Shorline Village Dock is Under Repairs); and the 75-passenger AquaLink water taxi, which travels between the Queen Mary, the Aquarium, and Alamitos Bay Landing next to the Long Beach Marina.
[edit] History
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Long Beach Transit began operation in 1963 at the time the Pacific Electric Railway was discontinuing service. The primary area of service for Long Beach Transit has been the City of Long Beach and to a limited extent, the enclave city of Signal Hill, but it has also provided service to surrounding communities in Los Angeles County including Lakewood, Cerritos, Norwalk, and Seal Beach in neighboring Orange County.
The company has operated various types of bus services. During the 1970s and 1980s, it also ran small shuttle buses in the downtown area, called the DASH, for "Downtown Area Short Hops," and because the routes were shorter, the fare was lower than on the regular buses.
Originally, bus transfers could be obtained upon payment of $0.10. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, instead of using a common transfer with the route number punched on the transfer, each route had its own transfer with the route number printed on them. For transfers to other bus lines, Long Beach transit used the consolidated Los Angeles County interagency transfer, which every bus company in Los Angeles County except RTD used (its regular transfers worked for both RTD buses and as an Interagency transfer). The interagency transfer even had a check box naming each of the twelve bus companies in the county, and the particular driver would punch the box for the particular agency that issued the transfer.[2] During the mid 1970s (sometime between 1972 and 1976); for a period of six months, a special subsidy was available. All bus trips in Los Angeles County were reduced from approximately $0.80 to $1.25, to $0.25 on weekdays and Saturdays, and $0.10 on Sunday (bus trips outside the county were subject to the regular rate). As a result, the issuance of transfers was discontinued for all trips within Los Angeles County. When the subsidy ended, the old price returned and bus companies resumed issuing transfers.[2]
In the early 1980s, the company changed its transfer system. Instead of using books of transfers, every bus has a ticket printer, which issues the three types of transfers: regular transfers, which allow the user to transfer to a different route; "emergency" transfers (typically used if the customer becomes sick and has to get off the bus) which allow the user to get back on the same route; and "interagency" transfers, which allow the user to transfer to a different bus company (and gave the user an additional 1 hour of time before it expired) such as Orange County Transit, MTA, Norwalk Transit and Cerritos Transit buses. In case of machine failure, however, operators would still carry one book of each kind of transfers.[2]
[edit] Renumbering
Originally, Long Beach Transit operated its bus lines as a consecutive set of route numbers, from 1 to 16. The numbers had no significance, except that route 1 ran along State Route 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. (This is the same number which is currently used by the Orange County Transit Authority for its route that runs on Route 1). Some routes had more than one routing, for example, the number 9 route ran from Downtown along 7th Street to California State University, Long Beach. All of the route 9 buses would continue along Bellflower Blvd., whereupon one would terminate at Bellflower and Stearns Street; one would turn at Willow Street, and continue along Woodruff Avenue; another would continue on Bellflower all the way to Alondra Boulevard; and another would also continue to Alondra Boulevard, but would take a slight detour to service the Lakewood Center shopping mall.
Possibly due to the successful renumbering which RTD had done in 1983, Long Beach Transit also decided to renumber its routes. In the late 1980s, the company changed all of its route numbers, by keeping the original 1- or 2-digit number, then adding a single digit after the number, according to which of the routes it was. The route 9, as indicated above, was renumbered into routes 91, 92, 93, and 94. The Route 15; which only had one route, became the 151. Additional routes have since been added, generally staying with the same system, e.g. if a route extends part of an existing route, it takes the first one (or two) digits of the major route number, then adds a new additional digit on the end. This is why there is now a route 96, which did not exist at the time of the original route 9.[2]
[edit] Routes
[edit] Regular Service
| Route | Terminals | via | Notes | |
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1
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Wardlow Station | Easy Avenue | Operates daily |
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21-22-23
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Paramount Garfield Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue (Line 21) |
Cherry Avenue (All Lines) Downey Avenue (Line 22) |
Operates daily |
| Paramount Alondra Boulevard and Downey Avenue (Line 22) |
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| Long Beach Cherry Avenue and Carson Street (Line 23) |
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45-46
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Long Beach Anaheim Street and Pacific Coast Highway |
Long Beach Anaheim Street and Santa Fe Avenue (Line 45) |
Anaheim Street | Operates daily |
| Long Beach Transit Mall (Line 46) | ||||
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51
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Artesia Station | Long Beach Boulevard | Operates daily |
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61-63
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Artesia Station (Line 61) | Atlantic Avenue | Operates daily |
| Long Beach Artesia Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue (Line 63) |
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71-72
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Paramount Garfield Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue |
Orange Avenue | Operates daily |
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81
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Long Beach Transit Mall | CSULB | 10th Street | Operates weekdays only |
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91-92-93-94
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Bellflower Alondra Boulevard and Woodruff Avenue (Lines 91, 92, 93) |
7th Street (All Lines) Bellflower Boulevard (Line 91) Woodruff Avenue (Line 92) Clark Avenue (Line 93) |
Lines 91 and 94 operate daily Lines 92 and 93 operate weekdays only |
| Los Altos Market Center Bellflower Boulevard and Stearns Street (Line 94) |
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96 ZAP
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Los Altos Market Center Bellflower Boulevard and Stearns Street |
7th Street | Operates weekday rush hours only in the peak direction: (e/b in AM, w/b in PM) |
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101-102-103-104
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Santa Fe Ave & 25th St | Civic Center & Joliet (Lines 101,102,and 104) | Willow Street (All Lines) Carson Street (Lines 101 and 103) Spring Street (Line 102 and 104) |
Lines 102 and 104 operate weekdays only Lines 101 and 103 operate weekdays and Saturdays only |
| Lakewood Center (Line 103) | ||||
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111-112
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Lakewood South Street and Downey Avenue |
Broadway (All Lines) Lakewood Boulevard (Line 111) Clark Avenue (Line 112) |
Operates daily |
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131
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Wardlow Station | Seal Beach Main Street and Electric Avenue |
Redondo Avenue | Operates daily |
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171
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Villages at Cabrillo | CSULB | Pacific Coast Highway | Operates daily |
| Seal Beach Main Street and Electric Avenue (weekdays only) |
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172-173-174
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Norwalk Station (Lines 172 and 173) | Pacific Coast Highway (All Lines) Palo Verde Avenue (Line 172) Studebaker Road (Line 173) |
Operates daily |
| Long Beach Ximeno Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway (Line 174) |
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181-182
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Wardlow Station | Magnolia Avenue (Line 181) Pacific Avenue (Line 182) |
Operates daily |
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191-192-193
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Long Beach Transit Mall | Cerritos Bloomfield Street and Del Amo Boulevard (Line 191) |
Santa Fe Avenue (All Lines) Del Amo Boulevard (Line 191) South Street (Line 192) |
Operates daily |
| Los Cerritos Center (Line 192) | ||||
| Del Amo Station (Line 193) | ||||
[edit] Passport Service
All four routes run daily. Fare is required when boarding east of Alamitos Avenue.
| Route | Terminals | via | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A-D | Catalina Landing | Alamitos Bay Landing (Route A) | Ocean Boulevard, 2nd Street |
| Long Beach Outer Circle and Los Coyotes Diagonal (Route D) |
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| B | Long Beach Golden Avenue and 4th Street |
Colorado Lagoon | 4th Street |
| C | Long Beach 8th Street and Locust Avenue |
Queen Mary | Pine Avenue |
[edit] AquaBus
The AquaBus is a summer service water taxi that has six "ports of call": Dock 4 of the Aquarium of the Pacific, Queen Mary, Shoreline Village at Parker's Lighthouse, Catalina Landing, Dock 7 of Pine Avenue Circle, and Hotel Maya. Fare is only $1.00.
[edit] AquaLink
The AquaLink is a summer service 68-foot water taxi that ferries up to 75 passengers to the most popular attractions in Long Beach Harbor and on down to Alamitos Bay Landing. Fare is only $5.00 and wheelchair boarding is available at Dock 4 near the Aquarium of the Pacific and at the Queen Mary.
[edit] Fares
| Fare Type | General | Student | Senior/Disabled/Medicare |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-way | $1.25 | $0.60 | |
| Interagency Transfer | $0.50 | ||
| Day Pass | $4.00 | $2.50 | |
| 5-Day Pass | $18.00 | $9.00 | |
| 30-Day Pass | $65.00 | $40.00 | $24.00 |
Long Beach Transit is free to Metrolink/EZ Pass holders, blind, handicapped and children under 5 (maximum 2 with an accompanying adult).
[edit] Fleet Information
Long Beach Transit was the first transit agency to operate the iconic General Motors RTS bus in the late 1970s. LBT would continue to order the RTS in different forms until the early 1990s. Although all of LBT's RTS buses have been retired, LBT's first RTS was retained as a historical bus.
As of 2009, LBT's fleet is composed mainly of the New Flyer Industries D40LF and GE40LF (gasoline-electric hybrid) models, with a small number of New Flyer D60LF articulated buses and one Prevost coach used for charters. Long Beach Transit is the first transit agency in the world to introduce production-model hybrid gasoline-electric buses into passenger service, with features similar to those on a Toyota Prius. The E-Power Bus (GE40LF), built by New Flyer will be used on all of Long Beach Transit's routes as they are brought into service.[3]
Buses have 4-digit numbers, of which the first two digits of the number represent either the year the bus was placed into service or the number of passengers the bus has capacity for. Buses numbered in the 9000 series were placed into service during the 1990s, buses in the 2000-2900 series were/will be placed into service during the 2000s, and buses in the 4300-4900 series seat 43 to 49 passengers, respectively.
Long Beach Transit operates thirteen 60-foot New Flyer buses, and had options for ten more, but due to new regulations that restricted the purchase of new diesel buses (and the absence of any non-diesel articulated from New Flyer) the buses ended up with Golden Gate Transit in Northern California as assignable options and delivered in 2007.
[edit] Fleet Roster
| Year | Manufacturer | Model | Propulsion | Length (ft.) | Fleet/(Qty.) | Notes |
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| 1995 | New Flyer | D40LF | Diesel | 40 | 9401-9420 (20) |
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| 1996 | 9601-9625 (25) |
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| 1997 | 9701-9720 (20) |
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| 1998 | 9801-9816 (16) |
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| 2000 | 2001–2018 (18) |
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| Prevost | H3-45 | 45 | 2000 (1) |
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| 2001 | Chance | Opus | 30 | 2101–2130 (30) |
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| 2002 | New Flyer | D40LF | 40 | 2201–2239 (39) |
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| D60LF | 60 | 2301–2313 (13) |
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| 2004 | GE40LF | Gasoline-electric Hybrid | 40 | 2401–2427 (27) |
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| 2005 | 2501–2522 (22) |
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| 2007 | 2701-2715 (15) |
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| 2009 | GE40LFA | 2901-2925 (25) |
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| 2011 | Gillig | BRT | CNG | 1201 (1) |
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| 2012 | Gillig | BRT | CNG | 1202-1233 (32) |
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[edit] References
- ^ "APTA Public Transportation Report". http://apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2010_q4_ridership_APTA.pdf. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d Remembering RTD and the "good old days" of cheap LA area public transit, paul-robinson.us, January 9, 2012
- ^ http://www.lbtransit.com/about/pdf/epower-fact-sheet.pdf Long Beach Transit E-Power Fact Sheet (Retrieved on 15 Jan 2007)
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