Long Beach seniors fuming over Passport bus route change

When Long Beach officials decided to reroute a free local bus for tourists back to its original mission, a group of elderly residents living in a low-income apartment building got left behind.

Though traditional bus service runs through the area, some say they can’t afford to pay the fares for what they were previously — and serendipitously — getting for free.

The Passport bus at Pacific Avenue and Seventh Street — operated by Long Beach Transit as a complimentary service to downtown businesses and the waterfront — was never intended to be a free shuttle for seniors, officials say, but that hasn’t cooled the anger of some seniors since the route was restructured Feb. 7 to serve more visitors headed to Long Beach hotspots.

“We have people here who have difficulty walking a block with a walker,” said Rachel Gamble, a resident of Park Pacific Tower, home to about 220 residents, about 80 percent of whom live on low income. “The fact that they took the bus away makes it almost impossible for them to go anywhere.”

Routes and reroutes

The Passport bus coects riders to downtown Long Beach restaurants, stores and attractions at Pine Avenue, Shoreline Drive, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Queen Mary.

But Long Beach Transit — which has 34 bus routes and nearly 2,000 bus stops — conducts service changes three times a year on a seasonal schedule. The restructuring of the Passport route, which operated every 15 minutes at peak times on weekdays, was implemented during one of those of changes.

Long Beach Transit officials say minor changes to the route over time meant the route moved further away from its original route, which was closer to 5th Street. Passport snaked into the 10th Street area because larger buses needed a place to tu around, said Kevin Lee, spokesman for Long Beach Transit.

The Passport line started serving Pacific Avenue at Seventh Street in the early 2000s, Lee said. In June 2014, the route went on a long term detour because of the city’s Pine Avenue Improvement Project, part of which is to make the area more walkable.

Officials conducted an analysis of the route, as they do with all lines of bus service periodically, looking at ruing times, ridership and efficiency, among other factors. The area along Pacific Avenue that the Passport route served was not considered low ridership, Lee said.

“Many residents use public transportation in the area, and understandably so, many would use the free option versus the pay option,” he said. “The previous routing to the one that started on February 7, 2016 saw a total route ridership of approximately 22,000 aually.”

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With an eye toward bringing more people to downtown destinations, and thus injecting more dollars into the downtown economy, Long Beach Transit restructured route. The change means the Passport route, which runs in a loop seven days a week, stops on Pacific Avenue at 3rd Street.

“How do we better coect to the places downtown that a tourist or conventioneer would want to go to, and coect to hotspots?” Lee said. “Going to 10th Street is not an efficient way to do that.”

And besides, the Passport bus was never specifically offered to seniors or Long Beach residents, officials say. Long Beach Transit does not operate free bus routes for seniors in its service area.

“We are happy when residents are able to jump on and use that service (Passport), but it’s not dedicated for seniors,” Lee said.

Discounts offered

Long Beach Transit in December held a community meeting at Inteational Elementary School to inform residents about the changes.

Seniors expressed conce they would no longer have access to stores and shops downtown. Long Beach Transit says they took the conces seriously and communicated to the seniors some viable alteative bus options. Several pay buses still run through the area, and the seniors, as well as other residents, can take any route on Pacific Avenue that coects to Passport at 3rd Street.

Officials with Long Beach Transit visited Park Pacific Tower and Providence Gardens on Jan. 22 to inform residents of other travel routes. Lee said Long Beach Transit also provided information on how qualified seniors and customers with disabilities can receive reduced fare passes to ride the entire bus system.

Lee said eligible residents may also make use of Access, a shared-ride, curb-to-curb paratransit shuttle service operating in most of Los Angeles County. Fares are distance-based and trips are arranged ahead of time with a reservation, Lee said. Access members are eligible to ride Long Beach Transit fixed route buses for free with a current Access membership card, Lee said.

Making money stretch

While Long Beach Transit officials say the community outreach was well-received, some seniors say the city has fallen short in taking care of their needs.

Christopher Owens, a resident of Park Pacific Tower, said the Passport re-route meant he had to start driving his own vehicle again, which has cost money.

“I had retired my car because of the convenience of the bus,” Owens said. “With it gone, I’ve had to re-active my car at great expense.”

The seniors want Long Beach Transit to restore the more northe portion of the Passport route, saying it helps seniors in the area, and exposes visitors to small businesses higher up on Pine Avenue. Or at least provide them free service to the new Passport stop at 3rd Street.

“$18 is a lot of money on a fixed income,” Owens said of the discounted pass. “You gotta make your money stretch.”

Ken Nakagawa, a resident of Park Pacific Tower and a well-known community volunteer in Long Beach, said some building residents are considering raising money to pay for rideshare services like Uber or Lyft.

Nakagawa recalled how Long Beach was known as the senior capital of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The bus route restructure is an example of how much that has changed, he said.

“Not only have they kicked us to the back of the bus, they’ve kicked us to the curb,” Nakagawa said. “It’s the kicked-to-the-curb capital of the United States.”

Long Beach Transit will consult with the seniors on future route changes, Lee said.

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