COUNTYWIDE : New Bus Contract Draws Protests

Passengers who ride the county’s Interconnect Bus Service are protesting the new contract with Santa Barbara Transportation because they say that company’s prior service for two months in 1988 was not dependable.

About 20 passengers on the line, which runs between Thousand Oaks and Ventura, have signed a letter dated May 13 to the County Board of Supervisors asking for reconsideration of the contract. The letter is an informational item on today’s board agenda.

The letter says Santa Barbara Transportation’s buses had no air conditioning and a door that had to be pushed open by passengers. “But most importantly,” it states, “we remember the times when we had no bus at all.”

Kathy Connell, an official with the transportation division of the county Department of Public Works, said she has not seen the letter and has not received complaints from passengers about the change in service from Antelope Bus Lines to Santa Barbara Transportation scheduled to take place on Aug. 1.

Connell said Santa Barbara Transportation operated the bus line from July 1, 1988, through Labor Day of that year, but quit because “there were operational problems.”

Santa Barbara Transportation, a company that operates 250 buses from northern Los Angeles County through San Luis Obispo County, will take over the operation of the bus line with all new buses that are fully air-conditioned and have wheel-chair lifts, President Ken Stokes said.

“We will be providing two new buses and one spare at a savings to the county of about $100 a day,” Stokes said. “We will do an outstanding job, we will be on time and provide a high level of service.”

The Interconnect Bus Service was set up in 1976 as part of a joint powers agreement between the county and the cities of Camarillo and Thousand Oaks to provide a means of transportation to those cities and some unincorporated areas along the Ventura Freeway. The county is responsible for operating the bus service.

Connell said ridership on the line has gone from about 38,300 in 1987 to about 37,000 this year. Antelope Bus Lines has run the line since the fall of 1988.