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Line 624 was one of one of five "transportation demand management" (TDM) shuttle lines -- paid for with federal ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act) funds, a CMAQ (Congestion Management Air Quality) grant, and local Proposition C sales tax revenue -- that MTA implemented shortly after it came into existence. The DASH-style "West Hills Loop" was an attempt to provide 30-minute all-day service via streets too narrow in many places to accomodate full-size buses. It began service January 31, 1994. Both Line 624 and Line 545 ("Highway Hummer") were part of a experiment to operate five shuttle or circulator lines using lower-paid operators from the MTA "Business Development Operating Facility" (BDOF) which was part of the contract with the United Transportation Union (UTU) at that time; the provision allowed completely new services to be operated by a "second tier" of bus operators who were still MTA employees. The other three lines were Line 621 ("Local Limo"), Line 622 ("Rabbit Transit" El Segundo-LAX), and Line 623 ("Rabbit Transit" Westchester-LAX); the first BDOF-operated line was Line 515 ("Blue Line Transfer" El Segundo-Artesia Station), which began operation on August 23, 1993. Line 624 was reevaluated as part of the San Fernando Valley Transit Restructuring Study -- along with the other TDM shuttle, Line 545, the Highway Hummer -- and was to have been incorporated into a new Line 669 shuttle. However, it had not proven to be much of a success -- primarily because it did not operate weekends, when it could have ferried shoppers to and from Fallbrook Mall -- and Line 624 ceased operation June 25, 1995. (The 1995 staff report proposing the cancellation of the TDM shuttles contains ridership data showing the poor performance of Line 624.) BDOF was subsequently used to operate lower-ridership and peak-hour services that had not been contracted out (such as Lines 168 and 426) and later became a full-fledged "entry level" process in the UTU contract. |
