New Bus Route on Harbor Blvd

June 10, 2013 at 3:55 am

Via the OC Register

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ew bus service with an exclamation point in its name and fewer stops in its way will start shuttling passengers up and down Harbor Boulevard on Monday, with the first few days free.

The idea behind the new Bravo! bus service is simple: fewer stops means a quicker ride for the 13,000 riders who travel the main Harbor Boulevard route every day. The Bravo! buses will make the run between north Costa Mesa and Fullerton in about 45 minutes; the existing buses take about an hour, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.

OCTA board chairman Greg Winterbottom speaks during a press conference for the launch of the Bravo! bus line Friday in Garden Grove. The OCTA’s new, limited-stop service will begin service Monday; free rides being offered until Wednesday. MIKE GREENE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER MORE PHOTOS »

The Bravo! buses, painted with a splash of blue, will run only on weekdays, with departures every 10 minutes during peak times. They will be designated as Route 543, with 16 stops marked with a “B.” The existing Harbor Boulevard route, 43, is one of the busiest in Orange County and makes 52 stops; it will continue to operate alongside the Bravo! buses.

Rides on the Bravo! buses will be free from the first departure at 5 a.m. on Monday through Wednesday. After that, the fare will be the same $2 that it costs to ride other OCTA buses.

Go to octa.net or call 714-636-7433 for more information about the Bravo! service and its route.

The OCTA expects to roll out two other limited-stop bus lines in the next several months. The first of those is scheduled to start service on the 73 toll road, between Laguna Niguel and Costa Mesa, in October. The next will start service in February on the 22 freeway between Long Beach and Orange County; its final destination is still being worked out.

The Harbor Boulevard Bravo! buses will add about 30,000 service hours to Orange County’s bus system, at a cost of around $3 million, OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said. That’s a small step toward recovering the 383,000 service hours that OCTA cut during the depths of the recession.”

For me, I personally do not care because I use the 47 and 57 most of the time to get down to Costa Mesa, but for some people, it will be faster to navigating one of the most busiest routes in Orange County.

It will save a lot of time for those who are trying to getting from Costa Mesa to Anaheim though.

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Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Anaheim, Costa Mesa, OCTA, Orange County, Santa Ana.