{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"SGV Connect 141: Foothill Transit's New Route and the Legislative Session Comes to an End","description":"This week\u2019s SGV Connect features a pair of interviews by Damien Newton. Don\u2019t worry Chris fans, the next podcast has already been recorded and it has a pair conducted by Chris Greenspon. The first interview this week is with Felicial Friesema about the big changes that have occurred in September with Foothill Transit Coverage. Of course, the SGV\u2019s bus agency had to create new routes for the A-Line stations that opened in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, and Pomona; but the transit agency also opened a new bus line, Line 295, to serve Cal Poly Pomona and Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. Sac). A transcript of that interview can be found below the podcast embed. Our second interview is a rebroadcast of last week\u2019s StreetSmart podcast from Streetsblog California. The episode features Transform CA\u2019s Zack Deutsch-Gross and we break down the recently concluded legislative session. To listen to that episode by itself, or for a transcript of the interview, click here.   SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. \u201cFoothill Transit. Going Good Places.\u201d Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays!       Damien We\u2019re here with Felicia Friesema from Foothill Transit. There have been a few big changes since the last time we talked\u2014outside of the regular route adjustments\u2014especially with the\u2026 I was going to say Gold Line. Am I allowed to say \u201cGold Line\u201d here?  Felicia Friesema Not anymore, dude. It\u2019s the A Line. Damien When I\u2019m with the Construction Authority, they still let me call it the Gold Line. Felicia Well, because \u201cGold Line\u201d is still in their name. But yeah, it\u2019s the A Line now. Damien Fine. The new \u201cA Line\u201d stations opened, and you also launched a new bus route. Let\u2019s start there. What can you tell us about the 295? It opened last week. And while it serves a Gold Line\u2014uh, A Line\u2014station\u2026 I\u2019m going to let people in on something Chris Greenspawn knows well: I mess this up in our ad copy at least once a month and we have to re-shoot it. Felicia (laughs) Damien So if you ever hear Chris say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you read that ad copy, Damien?\u201d It's usually because I\u2019ve already messed it up. Anyway, you launched a new bus line serving an A Line station, but you opened it before the A Line station opened. Tell us about Route 295. Felicia Yes! Congratulations to us. I\u2019m really happy about it. Line 295 is one of our shorter lines\u2014it only serves three stops. It runs between San Dimas Station, Cal Poly Pomona at Temple, and the Mt. SAC Transit Center. Service is Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., with 20-minute intervals. We opened on the 15th to introduce people to the new line. We honestly didn\u2019t expect much ridership at first\u2014and we were proved wrong very quickly. On the first day alone, we had over 200 rides. We weren\u2019t expecting that at all, which means we\u2019ve got a lot of non\u2013light rail-oriented riders on that line. Damien Just to be clear: you weren\u2019t expecting ridership on day one until the rail station opened, right? Felicia Correct\u2014thank you for clarifying that, Damien. We weren\u2019t expecting ridership to really kick in until the A Line opened on the 19th. We started the service early to get a sense of traffic patterns, especially on Temple between Cal Poly and Mt. SAC. That area can get pretty hairy at certain times of day when school\u2019s in session. We wanted to see how the schedule would run. Little did we know it would become really useful to a lot of people right away. And then, of course, ridership picked up again when the Gold Line\u2014see, I just did it\u2014 Damien (laughs) Felicia \u2014when the A Line opened on Friday. Damien This line mostly serves the college campuses. You\u2019re expecting students, professors, and people accessing the campus from farther away. It\u2019s not quite a first-mile\/last-mile connection\u2014it\u2019s a bit longer than that\u2014but it\u2019s both a rail connector and a local route now. Felicia Exactly. Cal Poly Pomona and Mt. SAC have long been commuter campuses. Cal Poly does have dorms, but a significant number of students drive or take transit from far away\u2014some from downtown L.A., some from Fontana. Having a smooth, easy transit option is definitely a plus for them. Damien As my kids get older, we\u2019re starting to look at colleges for my son, who\u2019s a sophomore. We\u2019ve heard: don\u2019t sleep on local schools. People undervalue them\u2014especially if they\u2019re used to traveling for college. I live in West L.A. and have heard plenty about people commuting to Cal Poly Pomona. I\u2019m not as familiar with Mt. SAC\u2014my kids\u2019 interests don\u2019t line up with their specialties\u2014but I\u2019ve already noticed the rail connection. My kid (or I) would only have to transfer twice to get there by train instead of driving. Felicia Exactly. Damien The big transportation story in the San Gabriel Valley right now is the four new A Line stations that opened on Friday. Joe did a Streetsblog story about it. We\u2019re going to go out and ride it together soon. How does this impact what you do? It\u2019s not just providing connections to stations\u2014you\u2019ve probably got some bus lines that can be almost replaced by rail. I imagine it\u2019s a lot of work every time a new station opens. Felicia It is, but it\u2019s good work. When the A Line\u2014then the Gold Line\u2014first started opening in the San Gabriel Valley, we had one line across the Foothill corridor called the 187. We\u2019ve since split that into the 187 and 188, with Azusa as the midpoint. We thought we\u2019d lose significant ridership along that corridor when the A Line opened\u2026 And\u2014see, I\u2019m going back and forth, too. Damien Yeah, it\u2019s not easy. Felicia Gold Line for history\u2019s sake; A Line for now. Anyway, we found that while travel patterns changed, our ridership wasn\u2019t heavily impacted by the opening of the Gold\/A Line. Splitting the 187 into two lines also improved schedule adherence. We learned some people needed to get into Pasadena and others into Claremont, so having a transfer in the middle made the line more efficient. We still watch the area very closely. That earlier experience became our blueprint for how service might be affected by these new stations. We\u2019re not anticipating major shifts, but we\u2019re keeping a close eye on it. We\u2019ve also worked to get our service closer to the stations for first-mile\/last-mile connectivity. For the most part, it\u2019s just another great way to make sure people are getting on transit. Damien There\u2019s a post on your website\u2014we\u2019ve been linking to it in the SGV Connect newsletter. It\u2019s literally foothilltransit.org\/article\/foothilltransit-and-metrorail. It shows all the connections to the various stations for people who want to access them. And your website always does a little extra\u2014like highlighting local businesses around the stations. I always appreciate that. Felicia Yes. Damien So it\u2019s probably too early to see how 295 has been impacted by the station opening. Friday was a special day, then you had a weekend. We\u2019re recording this Monday the 22nd\u2014the second weekday the line and station are both open. Any interesting early observations from the A Line stations and your transit service? Felicia Yes, actually. We\u2019re very excited about this and keeping track of where ridership is growing. Fridays are usually low ridership days\u2014people take off early or make it a three-day weekend. But we had really solid ridership on the 295 out of San Dimas Station the first day the A Line was open. We expect that number to grow. We\u2019re partnering heavily with the schools and relying on a lot of word of mouth. We\u2019re also looking at how other lines are impacted. It\u2019s hard to tell exactly how much ridership is shifting because you can\u2019t always tell if a boarding is from the street or a transfer from the A Line. We\u2019re sending people out to make sure connections are smooth and to help riders with questions. These are still early days, but we\u2019re keeping close tabs. Damien I was talking to a friend over the weekend\u2014he\u2019s in the industry\u2014and he suggested I ask: Do you think these new stations will mean more overall ridership, or less on the bus lines? I always assumed people would ride the train instead of the bus. His hypothesis is that you\u2019ll more than make up for that with people who weren\u2019t riding transit at all but will now ride the train and need the bus for the last leg. Felicia I think in the short term, yes. With something like this, you have to take a long view. Our surveys consistently show: the more transit service is available and frequent, the more people ride\u2014period. Any new transit service\u2014more connectivity, more frequency, more access\u2014is good for all transit. In the short term, there may be some shifts as travel patterns change. But long term, anything that makes transit more familiar, accessible, and easy to use is good across the board. Damien All right. Any closing thoughts, or anything I didn\u2019t ask that you think listeners should know? Felicia Just one thing about the La Verne Station. We\u2019ve seen a lot of chatter about accessibility\u2014specifically about having a stop closer to the station or buses going directly into the station. Unfortunately, they weren\u2019t able to make the adjustments needed for a proper bus turnaround. We were hoping they could. The Construction Authority is turning the project over to Metro, so it\u2019ll be in Metro\u2019s hands going forward. We\u2019ll partner with them to make it more accessible. For now, bus service will be across the street rather than directly in the station. Damien I did notice on the map that there\u2019s a new stop on the 197 significantly closer than the previous ones. Felicia Correct. Damien But the hope is you\u2019ll be able to go directly into the station in the medium-term future? Felicia Correct. We\u2019ll say the \u201chopeful\u201d future. Damien Obviously it\u2019s not happening next month, but hopefully Metro can make that fix reasonably soon. Felicia We hope. We hope, we hope. But yes, we\u2019ve adjusted the line as much as possible to make it more accessible. Damien All right. Thank you so much for your time. We usually do an end-of-year check-in around November or December\u2014let\u2019s plan on that. Felicia Those are fun. Let\u2019s make it an AMA. Damien Oh, we could do that. That\u2019d be fun. Felicia Yeah, let\u2019s do an AMA. I loved the last one we did. Damien I always like when people send me questions anonymously, even though you and I can almost immediately guess who sent them. Felicia For sure. We know you guys. We do. Damien Anyway, thank you so much for this. We\u2019ll check in again. I\u2019ve gotten more interested in how bus and rail work together\u2014after watching the last Gold Line extensions and even locally with the Expo (excuse me, E Line) here\u2014how that impacted Big Blue Bus and Metro Bus service. I started as a bike guy, but this has become fascinating to me. Felicia Yes, come to the dark side, Damien.       ","author_name":"SGV Connect","author_url":"http:\/\/damientalks.libsyn.com\/podcast","html":"