RTD Plans No New Lines to Serve Olive View Center
Although Olive View Medical Center is preparing for a large number of indigent patients when it reopens next month, the Southern California Rapid Transit District has made no plans to increase bus service to the Sylmar facility.
“We think the service we have out there is adequate,†RTD spokesman Rick Jager said.
Olive View administrator Douglas Bagley disagreed. “We would prefer to see the service increased,†he said.
Now, only Line 94 serves Olive View directly. The line originates in downtown Los Angeles, runs along San Fernando Road from Glendale through Burbank, Sun Valley, Pacoima and San Fernando and stops in front of the hospital before ending at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.
Patients from other areas of the Valley will have to take one or more of a dozen other buses and transfer to Line 94 to reach the hospital.
Bagley said he would like the RTD to provide direct service to Olive View from the mid-Valley, where many low-income patients who rely on public transportation live.
Jager said it is difficult to consider increasing service when the RTD faces cuts in existing service because of a Reagan Administration proposal to cut federal subsidies for public transportation.
He said, however, that RTD will closely monitor bus ridership to the hospital and, if the demand is high, will consider expanding service.
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