After more than a year of construction and a decade of planning, Omnitrans is about ready to roll out its $197.1-million rapid transit bus line later this month.
The near 16-mile sbX Green Line is the first bus rapid transit service in the Inland Empire.
It opens to the public on April 28, allowing bus riders to travel north and south from Cal State San Bernardino to Loma Linda University.
Officials will hold a completion celebration at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Court Street Square in San Bernardino.
Bus rapid transit, officials said, is faster and has fewer stops. The buses will also have traffic signal priority capability, allowing them to change stoplights to green for speedier travel. The system includes 5.4 miles of dedicated lanes, 16 station locations, with stops at major points of activity, such as colleges, hospitals, government centers, job centers, and retail.
“One of the reasons this particular corridor was selected and garnered support at the federal level at $75 million is because it was already a high-use corridor, and it has many key destinations along the line, which includes two universities, hospitals, the San Bernardino city and county centers, downtown San Bernardino, high schools, and several job centers,” said Omnitrans spokeswoman Wendy Williams. “It’s just a robust corridor in terms of locations that would benefit from the service.”
The rapid transit bus fleet is comprised of 14 natural-gas powered vehicles that can seat about 40, and 80 with passengers standing.
Transportation officials said their goals include reducing traffic on the region’s freeways, improving air quality, increasing bus ridership, fostering transit-oriented development in the West End of San Bernardino County, and providing better transit connections between the Omnitrans system, Metrolink, the Gold Line, and L.A./Ontario International Airport.
“We do know that having bus rapid transit stations that are permanent looking, similar to light rail, helps to spur economic development, as we’ve seen in other cities that this has been done, like Cleveland, Ohio,” said Anna Rahtz, acting planning director for Omnitrans. “Also, the idea is to provide transit options competitive with the private automobile, because it’s faster, more direct and more efficient. We’re hoping to increase transit ridership throughout the valley, and hopefully alleviate traffic congestion and air quality.”
Not everyone has been on board for the sbX line. San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce President Judi Penman said the project has actually hurt business in the area.
“I sincerely hope that the value of the bus ridership makes up for the hardship it has cost the businesses,” Penman said. “Those hardships have included the loss of storefront parking, and the left-hand turns that were promised to the businesses. And some businesses just gave up and left.”
Vassileios Douvikas, owner of Burger Mania restaurant on E Street, just south of Mill Street, said his business had declined by 10 percent during construction of the green line. With construction complete, Douvikas said business has returned and he’s hoping ridership could translate to customers.
“If people really are going to use that bus, yeah it’s going to help me, but I don’t see a lot of people using the bus,” Douvikas said. “I hope people use the bus. They’ve done what they’ve done. The business will make money if it works, and people start eating, I would benefit because the bus stop is in front of the restaurant.”
The Green Line is the first of a planned network of sbX corridors in the western Inland Empire.
The West Valley Connector Corridor is a proposed rapid bus line from Fontana to Pomona to serve many significant activity centers in the western portion of Omnitrans’ area, according to plans. The overall vision for the sbX system was approved by San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county’ transportation planning agency also known as SanBAG, in 2004.
Of the $191.7 million cost of the project, 96 percent comes from federal, state and county funds designated for transit projects.
Funding sources include $75 million from the FTA Small Starts Program; $45.62 million from the FTA Urbanized Area Formula Program; $21 million from the Federal Highway Flexible Funds for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program; $14.34 million from Proposition 1B Bonds; and $5.48 million from San Bernardino County Measure I, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax, from funds dedicated to express bus and bus rapid transit.
Construction for other rapid transit corridors depends on funding. Omnitrans officials hope success with the Green Line will help to bring money for the rest of the system.
