Metro will begin new express bus service on Monday that is expected to cut travel time between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside by at least 20 minutes.
The Valley-Westside Express bus service will use 405 Freeway carpool lanes to take Metro riders between Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley to the Westside.
Metro completed the freeway’s northbound carpool lanes in May. The southbound carpool lanes opened in 2009.
Trips between the Valley and the Westside on existing bus service uses surface streets, including Sepulveda Boulevard, and takes about an hour to travel each way.
The Valley-Westside Express route — which will run every 15 minutes during peak morning and afternoon hours — will be serviced by 45-foot advanced composite buses made of lightweight material and can handle the Sepulveda Pass at freeway speeds.
The faster service “is targeted at one of L.A.’s most notorious choke points” and will also “reduce the number of cars on the 405 to reduce congestion for us all,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who chairs the Metro Board of Directors.
The mayor will join fellow board member, San Fernando Valley- area City Councilman Paul Krekorian, and transportation officials on Friday to unveil the new service.
Krekorian said the service will “create a critical north-south linkage to existing transit lines and shave precious minutes off of morning and evening commutes.”
— City News Service