(rshsdepot) Whittier, CA

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Depot revival rides on shuttles
Old train station to serve rail riders

By Ben Baeder , Staff Writer - Whittier Daily News
January 8, 2003
WHITTIER -- For the first time in about 30 years, the Whittier
Transportation Depot will be a train station again kind of.

Norwalk and Whittier city officials are working to create a $1.1 million
government-funded shuttle service from the Whittier Transportation Depot to
the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink Station. The station is located at
12700 Imperial Highway.

The plan calls for the shuttle to make four runs to the Metrolink Station in
the morning and four in the afternoon.

"It's a way to kind of connect this place to its past,' said Susan Chow,
Whittier transit manager. Chow's office is in the 115-year-old depot, which
served as a train station for the Southern Pacific Railroad until the early
1970s.

The restored depot, relocated to Greenleaf Avenue, is now a historic
building, bus station and meeting hall.

When service starts this summer, the shuttles will make several trips from
the depot to the train station in the morning and evening of each business
day.

The service won't start until summer because there are conditions tied to
Norwalk's grant funds for the shuttle program. Norwalk must buy low-emission
vehicles, which are expensive and difficult to find, according to Jim
Parker, Norwalk transportation manager.

When it does start, a one-way trip, with just one stop at Painter Avenue and
Telegraph Road, will cost 60 cents.

Parker said the program is funded by a $1 million grant from the
Metropolitan Transit Authority, a $170,000 grant from the South Coast Air
Quality Management District and a $5,000 grant from Los Angeles County
Supervisor Don Knabe's office.

The program is the result of a proposal by Norwalk to the AQMD to reduce
vehicle smog emissions, Parker said.

"If we can get people from Whittier out of their cars, this would save a lot
of single-passenger auto trips,' he said. "It really is possible to get
people in the Los Angeles area to use public transportation. If you make it
convenient, they'll do it.'

- -- Ben Baeder can be reached at (562) 698-0955, Ext. 3024, or by e-mail at
ben.baeder_@_sgvn.com.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #566
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org