Santa Clarita Transit, in providing its share of post-earthquake service, found itself in the unusual position of continuing to operate two of its lines even after the freeways connecting the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys reopened. One, in fact, continues to operate, more than 15 years later.
Line 796 connected the Santa Clarita Valley with the Warner Center area, operating four trips into the San Fernando Valley in the morning (leaving the Santa Clarita Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 5:01am until 6:31am) and four return trips to Santa Clarita in the afternoon (leaving Warner Center every 30 minutes from 3:30pm until 5:00pm).
Line 797 similarly connected commuters to the Chatsworth Industrial Park area, with four morning inbound trips (leaving Santa Clarita Metrolink Station approximately every 30 minutes from 4:38am until 6:42am) and four afternoon return trips (leaving Chatsworth hourly from 3:05pm until 6:05pm).
Lines 796 and 797 began operation February 3, 1994.
Line 798 was the most ambitious -- and by far the most successful -- of the three. It operated all day bidirectional service between the Santa Clarita Valley and the Van Nuys - Sherman Oaks area, with approximately 30 minute service from 4:38am (first southbound trip) until 9:10pm (last northbound trip). Note the "peak-hour extension" alignment shown on the left; the first seven northbound trips and the seven southbound trips operating between 3:30pm and 6:00pm used this routing and did not serve Santa Clarita Metrolink Station (although those trips appear to have dead-headed between Metrolink and the terminal at Ave. Stanford/Technology Dr.).
Line 798 began operation February 16, 1994. All three lines used various street alignments to get around the collapsed segments of SR-14 and SR-118. All three charged a one-way fare of $2.00, accepting MTA and LADOT interagency transfers as $1.10 of the fare (but not those agencies' passes). Existing Line 799 express service between Santa Clarita and Downtown Los Angeles, however, was suspended post-earthquake and did not resume operation until March 1, 1994; this was presumably done to allow the use of the Line 799 equipment to operate the new services until the fleet size could be increased.
Line 796 subsequently added several stops in Warner Center and on DeSoto Ave., and still operates on roughly the same schedule.
Line 798 scaled back service September 6, 1994 to operate southbound-only in the morning and northbound-only in the afternoon.
Line 797 was cancelled September 5, 1995. On that same date, the "peak-hour extension" route of Line 798 was renumbered Line 793 (northbound morning and southbound afternoon), and a reverse-direction version of Line 796 -- Line 791 -- incorporating the same "extension" route and a new routing via Topanga Canyon Blvd. to also serve Chatsworth Metrolink, began operation. Both of the reverse-direction lines were interlined with their "parent" lines (793/798 at the south terminal, and 791/796 at Victory Blvd./Topanga Canyon Blvd.). A reverse-direction version of Line 799 -- Line 794 -- also began service on that date, and Line 795, which had operated between Santa Clarita and Lancaster, was extended on three of its daily round-trips to Olive View Medical Center.
On April 9, 2000, the portion of the Line 795 route between Santa Clarita and Olive View Medical Center was separated into Line 790. It was cancelled August 13, 2007; the creation of Line 8 on March 5, 2006, operating to Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station with a local fare, gradually eliminated the need for the express service. The remining Line 795 service continues to operate between Santa Clarita and Lancaster, although in recent years it has been reduced to a handful of peak-hour round trips.
On August 3, 2003, Lines 793/798 were extended via Ventura Blvd. - Sepulveda Blvd. - Magnolia Blvd., eliminating the northbound stop at Van Nuys Blvd./Riverside Dr., but it was returned to the original routing, with the south terminal in Sherman Oaks, at the beginning of 2004.
The City of Santa Clarita adopted a nine-year "Transportation Development Plan" in November 2006 which included a recommendation to realign Line 798 to operate all-day, bi-directional service to North Hollywood Station seven days a week, canceling both the Van Nuys Blvd. service and Line 793. That was implemented in 2009; Lines 793/798 were cancelled after their afternoon trips on Friday, July 31 and new Line 757 to North Hollywood began service the following Sunday, August 2.
