CIRCULATION:

1,021,121 DAILY/1,391,076 SUNDAY

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1996

DAILY 25

Under a settlement between the

Metropolitan Transportation
Authority and a coalition of
groups representing bus riders,
the transit authority agreed to:
Maintain the current cash fare
of $1.35 or a 90-cent token for
two years.
Put more transit police on
buses to increase security.
Continue the sale of monthly
passes for three years, cutting
the price from $49 to $42. Sell
15-day passes for $21 and
weekly passes for $11.

Cut off-peak fares to 75 cents

on some lines used chiefly by
those dependent on public
transit.
Add 102 buses by the end of
June 1997.
Access by those dependent on
public transit to reach destinations such as medical facilities,
job sites and vocational schools.

A consent decree
approved Monday
by a federal judge
will produce its
first benefits for
passengers with
the sale of
Decembers
monthly passes
at a reduced
price of $42.

ROBBIN GODDARD/ Los Angeles Times

MTA Bus Settlement at a Glance

RICARDO De ARATANHA / Los Angeles Times

Settlement of Bus Suit Approved

Transit: MTA agrees to put
more vehicles on streets and decrease some fares. In two-year legal fight, riders had accused
agency of slighting them in favor
of rail projects used by far fewer
people.
RICHARD SIMON
TIMES STAFF WRITER

A federal judge Monday gave final approval to an out-of-court settlement requiring the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority to put more buses on Los Angeles County streets and provide
cheaper and safer rides.
As a result of settling the case The
Labor/Community Strategy Center and
Bus Riders Union et al. v the MTA,
passengers will see the first improvements promised by the consent decree

in late November when the December pass goes on sale at $42, down
from $49.
That is expected to be followed
in December by the first test of a
75-cent off-peak fare, on a line from
downtown Los Angeles to the South
Bay.
U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. signed the settlement before a
packed courtroom of bus riders, end-

ing a two-year legal fight triggered

by a civil rights lawsuit accusing the
MTA of pursuing costly rail projects
while slighting a bus system that
serves 10 times as many riders.
Under the settlement reached last
month, the MTA will freeze the cash
fare at $1.35 for two years, offer a
new $11 weekly pass and put at least
152 more buses on the streets over
the next two years. More officers will
be assigned to patrol the bus system.
In court papers, a team of plaintiffs lawyers led by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
said the settlement will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of bus fleet
expansion and improvements and
fare reductions that directly address
the violations of civil rights laws that
plaintiffs have alleged.
An MTA official said Monday
that the agency expects to spend
$100 million to expand its fleet by 275
buses over the next six years, plus
up to $25 million a year in increased
operating costs while losing $5 million a year in revenues.
Dana Woodbury, deputy executive officer for scheduling and operations planning, said the additional
costs will not affect rail construction.
But he said the cost of putting more
buses on the streets could involve
funds that otherwise might be available to help rail construction.
John Walsh, a critic of the MTA,
sent a letter suggesting that the settlement be held up until the transit
agency specifies how it would pay
for the bus improvements.
Plaintiffs attorneys responded in
court papers that while sympathetic
to the concerns . . . that it might be
prudent in light of the MTAs checkered funding history to work out beforehand a financial plan, the settlement contains safeguards to ensure
compliance, including court supervision.
Plaintiffs attorneys will seek to
recover their expenses from the
MTA, which already has spent more
than $1 million on the legal fight.
The case ended on a strange note.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund
urged approval of the settlement.

However, seven out of eight named plaintiffs, including The Labor/Community

Strategy Center, the Bus Riders Union,
Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates,
the four individual plaintiffs, and their new
attorney, Amos Dyson, objected to one
provision.
Along with these plaintiffs, fifty-six
bus riders filed written objections to a
provision in the consent decree that
could have allowed the MTA to restrict
the $42 monthly general pass to lowincome riders, while allowing the
agency to raise the price for all other
riders in an unrestricted fashion. They
maintained that such a pass would penalize middle-class minority bus riders,
stigmatize poor people and, by requiring
documentation, scare immigrants away
from public transit. Moreover, it could
set a precedent of exempting a major
portion of the agreement from judicial
review.
Eric Mann, director of the Labor/
Community Strategy Center, the lead
plaintiff in the suit, said after the hearing
that he supported the settlement after
receiving assurances from the court that
the MTA would not implement such a
pass system without first taking it to a
newly formed structure, the Joint Working Group, made up of bus riders and
transit officials and subject to ten years
of federal court supervision.
The agreement calls for establishment
of this Joint Working Group to try to resolve any disputes involving the consent
decree. If disputes persist, they eventually will be referred to a special master, Donald Bliss, the Washington lawyer who served as a mediator in the case,
and, if necessary, to Hatter.
Now, we can celebrate a victory,
Mann said.

Page 2
Los Angeles Times

October 29, 1996