Line 530 (Panorama City - East Los Angeles Express)
Proposed to link Panorama Mall to East L.A. City College via Van Nuys Blvd. - Sherman Way at the Valley end and a long express segment via SR-170, SR-134, and I-5. The line would then operate along Cesar Chavez Ave. between Soto St. and Atlantic Blvd.
Staff moved this line to the second phase when very few spoke in favor of the line at any of the public hearings held in the second half of 1997. This line was included in the bidding for the presently contracted MTA lines and other "pilot project" lines; service was to begin June 24, 2000 but a challenge by Laidlaw to the awarded contracts delayed that start.
The March, 2002 MTA Plan for Continuing Compliance with the Consent Decree called for the funds allocated to this line, as well as the Line 426 extension and Line 577 (El Monte - Long Beach Express), to be reprogrammed to the Metro Rapid expansion program. The special master's order of April 14, 2005 directed MTA to reconsider implementation of those lines (primarily because MTA had transferred one New Service Program line to a municipal operator in 2000), but MTA could not find sufficient grounds to implement Line 530. Line 577 was eventually implemented December 18, 2005. Line 426 had been cutback to North Hollywood Station June 29, 2003 and was not included in the special master's order. It is now unlikely to ever be implemented, since the Metro Gold Line eastside extension will provide approximately the same connectivity via transfers from the Metro Red Line beginning in 2009.
According to MTA staff, if Line 530 had been implemented, the limited and express stops would have included:
Van Nuys Metrolink Station
Sherman Way/Van Nuys Blvd.
Sherman Way/Woodman Ave.
Sherman Way/Coldwater Canyon Blvd.
North Hollywood Station (I am very amused that a BRU-proposed line would have had a Metro Rail connection)
Line 549 stops in the Burbank Media District
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center
Cesar Chavez Ave./Soto St.
Cesar Chavez Ave./Evergreen Ave.
Cesar Chavez Ave./Lorena St.
Cesar Chavez Ave./Rowan Ave.
Cesar Chavez Ave./Eastern Ave.
Cesar Chavez Ave./Arizona Ave.
A proposed stop serving the Glendale Galleria was removed from consideration; due to the length of the route, it was MTA staff's belief that an extension of Line 530 to the Galleria would "add a significant amount of time to the schedule and discourage patronage".
