Simi Valley Council Decides to Halt Bus Service to College

Simi Valley residents who ride the bus to Moorpark College may soon have to find another means of transportation.

About 30 people ride the bus to and from the college Mondays through Fridays, but Simi Valley officials say that is not enough to justify continuing the service.

They said they have repeatedly asked the college to help in their efforts to boost ridership, but nothing has been done.

“The college just doesn’t care about this service,” Mayor Greg Stratton said Monday before the City Council voted to discontinue bus service to the college beginning Aug. 26.

Service at that time will be extended to other areas of the city, including Wood Ranch, Simi Valley Adventist Hospital and the industrial park area on the city’s west end.

The decision to cut the service to Moorpark College was criticized by Ron Granger, a 42-year-old blind student.

“To take away my option to ride the bus out to Moorpark College to further my education offends me badly,” said Granger, who handed the council a petition with 200 signatures of students who want the city to continue the service.

Jim Jackson, another student, expressed his disappointment to the council.

“I feel by doing this you are depriving people of a college education,” said Jackson, 22. “I think you don’t realize how important it is.”

But City Council members said they have heard the same arguments for years. They said that while they sympathize with students who ride the bus, the city simply cannot afford to keep the service going with its present ridership.

While voting to cut the service, the council agreed Monday to send a letter to the Ventura County Community College District, Moorpark College and the city of Moorpark to see if they would be interested in working together to keep buses running to the college.

Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason responded that because of tight budgeting, it would be difficult for his city to help offset some of the costs of the service. But he said he is willing to work with Simi Valley and college officials to find a solution.

“We’ll have to look at the benefits . . . to determine the importance of the service to see if we can manage to keep it running,” Lawrason said.

Floyd Thionnet, vice president of student services at the college, said the college is willing to work with Simi Valley officials.

But Thionnet said he took exception to the council’s position that the college has not done its part to boost ridership.

He said the college has occasionally taken out ads in the college newspaper promoting the bus service as well as placed schedules at the Student Activities Office and other locations on campus.

“They can’t hang this on us,” he said.

But several students who ride the bus said they have never seen ads for the service in the school paper.

A few students riding the bus Tuesday said they don’t know what they are going to do if service to the college is stopped.

“It is going to affect me a lot,” said Jalaj Saroj, one of six students who was on an afternoon bus returning to Simi Valley. Saroj, 19, said he does not have a car and cannot afford to buy one.

“Every day I use the bus,” he said. “I’ve got to ride the bus. It’s the only transportation I have.”