Metro plans to announce today the launch of a new express bus service expected to cut travel time between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside by about 20 minutes starting Monday.
The Valley-Westside Express bus service will use 405 Freeway carpool lanes to transport Metro riders between Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley and Westwood.
Metro completed the freeway’s northbound carpool lanes in May. The southbound carpool lanes opened in 2009.
Metro CEO Art Leahy said the express service “leverages Metro’s other transportation investments in the Valley/Westside region,” creating a “synergy among Metro’s transit services and highway improvements.”
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 that enables them to travel 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 today will join fellow board member, San Fernando Valley-area City Councilman Paul Krekorian, and transportation officials 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.”
