Survey of regional express bus routes in greater Los Angeles
Express buses are a transit mode with great potential for Los Angeles, but currently are a confuisng mess of different agencies, fare systems, termini, and levels of service. This is a region with a lot of freeways, and sometimes those freeways are even useful. Often, a freeway bus is the fastest transit option, even to a destination served by trains (compare trip times on Metro's A line LRT and J line freeway BRT). However, I've never seen a combined "regional bus map" or even a list of all regional bus services, and I'd like to start making such a list in this article.
Metro
Metro 460 runs local from Anaheim to Norwalk, and express from Norwalk to Downtown Los Angeles, serving Manchester, Slauson and 37th street stations on the Harbor Transitway in its express segment. It runs half-hourly all day from roughly 4 AM to Midnight, 7 days a week. It has weekday peak frequencies closer to 20 minutes. Peak end-to-end trip time is roughly 2 hours. Major transit centers it serves are 7th street Metro Center, Norwalk C Line, Fullerton Park and Ride, and Disneyland's bus center. I grade this route Very Useful.
Metro 487 and 489 run from downtown LA to Pasadena, Temple City and Arcadia. Both routes run along the El Monte Busway before splitting in the city of San Gabriel, where they take surface streets northerly to their destinations. Route 487 ends at Sierra Madre Villa station in Pasadena, while the 489 ends at a park and ride lot at Mission and Broadway in Arcadia. 487 runs every 30 to 40 minutes from 6 AM to about 8:30 PM, while 489 runs at peak hours only, weekdays only. 487 runs weekend service every 45 minutes from 6:30 AM to 8:30 PM. Peak end-to-end trip time is roughly 50 minutes. Major transit centers served are Union station, Cal State LA station, and Sierra Madre Villa station. I grade 487 moderately useful and 489 very limited in usefulness.
Metro 501 runs from North Hollywood B line station to Del Mar A line station in Pasadena. The route runs southeast on Lankershim boulevard from North Hollywood station to the 134 freeway, exiting to serve stops on surface streets in Burbank and Glendale, followed by the Memorial Park and Del Mar A line stations. Frequency of service is half-hourly all weekdays with 20 minutes peak, from 5 AM to 9 PM, and every 45 to 60 minutes on weekends. Peak end-to-end trip time is roughly 50 minutes. Major transit centers served are North Hollywood B line, Memorial Park A line, and Del Mar A line. I grade this route Very useful.
Metro 550 runs from Harbor Gateway Transit Center to Expo Park and the USC area via the Harbor Transitway. It runs 9 round trips per day, at peak hours only, weekdays only. Peak end-to-end trip time is roughly 40 minutes. I grade this route Very limited in usefulness.
Metro 577 runs from El Monte to Long Beach via the 605 freeway. It runs half hourly from 5:30 AM to 10 PM on weekdays only. Peak end-to-end trip time is roughly 1 hour and 10 minutes. Major transit centers served are El Monte bus station, Norwalk C line station, and Cal State Long Beach. I grade this route Moderately useful
Metro J line (silver) services 910 and 950 run from El Monte station to Harbor Gateway Transit Center via the El Monte busway and the Harbor Transitway. 910 ends at Harbor Gateway while 950 continues on to downtown San Pedro. The J line runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a peak frequency of every 5 minutes, and a minimum frequency of one bus per hour late at night. Peak end-to-end trip time is 1 hour on the 910 and 90 minutes on the 950. Major transit centers served are El Monte busway station, Harbor Gateway Transit Center, Seventh Street Metro Center, Union station, and El Monte bus station. I grade the J line Excellent.
LADOT Commuter Express
Commuter express buses generally cater to people who work 9 to 5 in the downtown area and live in outlying suburbs. Most routes only run inbound in the morning, i.e. pickups only in the suburbs and dropoffs only downtown, and outbound in the evening. For some reason, route 142 between Long Beach and San Pedro is also run by LADOT Commuter Express, even though it functions more like a local transit bus, using low-floor buses and running every half hour, all day, seven days a week. Most commuter expresses, however, run peak hours, peak direction only, weekday only, making them very limited in usefulness unless otherwise noted.
Commuter Express 409 runs eight inbound trips from Glendale to downtown LA from 5:30 to 7:00 in the morning, and seven trips back to Glendale from 4:00 to 5:45 in the evening. All of these trips run along freeways 5 and 2 to serve the Glendale Park and Ride, and four extend along surface streets to Foothill and Glenoaks. Like most LADOT express buses, they only serve peak direction travel. End to end trip time is roughly 79 minutes.
Commuter Express 419 runs nine inbound trips from Chatsworth Metrolink to downtown LA and the USC area from 5:25 to 8:00 in the morning, and eight outbound trips from 3:40 to 7 PM. The route mostly uses Devonshire road and the 5 freeway. End to end trip time is roughly 81 minutes
Commuter Express 422 runs twelve westbound trips from the USC area and downtown LA to Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks, from 4:55 to 8 AM; and twelve eastbound trips from 1:55 to 6 PM. The route mostly follows the 101 freeway, and my guess is that it exists primarily to keep buses in service on their way to peak direction trips rather than deadheading. End to end trip time is roughly 79 minutes. This is a longer span of service than most commuter expresses, and combined with the 423 it opens up some interesting non-commute trip possibilities, so i grade it marginally useful.
Commuter Express 423 runs a total of nine inbound trips from Thousand Oaks and Canoga Park along the 101 freeway to downtown LA and the USC area from 5 to 6:40 AM. Five trips start at Thousand Oaks transit center, three trips start at Calabasas, and one starts at Encino Park and Ride. Trip time from Calabasas is roughly 67 minutes, while the Thousand Oaks buses skip the Calabasas and Encino stops, making their trips only 59 minutes long. There are ten return trips following a similar pattern from 3:30 to 6:35 PM.
Commuter Express 431 runs four eastbound trips from Westwood to downtown LA and Union station via the 10 freeway from 6:25 to 7:35 in the morning, and four westbound trips from 4:25 to 5:55 in the evening. End to end trip time is roughly 67 minutes
Commuter Express 534 runs four trips in the reverse peak direction of 431: westbound from 6:50 to 8:10 AM, and eastbound from 3:43 to 5:15 PM. End to end trip time is roughly 55 minutes. This route could be fun to race with the purple line and the 720.
Commuter express 437 is split into two branches, A and B. 437A runs six inbound trips from Marina Del Rey and Culver City to downtown LA from 5:52 to 7:40 AM, and six return trips from 3:26 to 6:06 PM. 437B runs only two trips each direction, from Playa Vista. Both branches use the 10 freeway from Culver City to Downtown; branch A uses surface streets west of Culver City while branch B takes the 405 south to Jefferson. End to end trip time is roughly 59 minutes.
Commuter Express 438 runs six inbound trips from Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and El Segundo to downtown LA via the 105 and 110 freeways, from 5:45 to 7:30 AM. An additional eight inbound trips start at the Redondo beach C line station from 5:45 to 8 AM. Outbound trips follow the same branching pattern from 3:40 to 6 PM. In addition to downtown, 438 does not pick up passengers inbound from any harbor transitway stations, or drop off there outbound. End to end trip time is roughly 68 minutes.
Commuter express 439 is a reverse-peak commuter service, running four trips from downtown LA to El Segundo via the harbor transitway and 105 freeway from 6 to 8:30 AM, and four trips from El Segundo to downtown from 4 to 6:30 PM. Uniquely, this route allows local pickups and dropoffs downtown and along the transitway. End to end trip time is roughly 51 minutes.
Commuter Express 448 runs eight inbound trips from Rancho Palos Verdes to downtown LA via the Harbor transitway from 5:45 to 7:10 AM, and eight return trips from 3:55 to 5:45 PM. trip time 69 minutes
Commuter Express 549 runs bi-directionally between Encino park and ride, and Lake A line station in Pasadena, via North Hollywood B line station and Glendale, with five trips in each direction from 5:55 to 7:45 AM, and five trips in each direction from 3:45 to 5:55 PM. End to end trip time is roughly 53 minutes. Compare to Metro 501.
Commuter Express 573 runs fifteen southbound trips from 5:30 to 9:30 AM, and one southbound trip in the evening; and fifteen northbound trips from 2:10 to 6:45 PM, and one northbound trip in the morning. The route runs along surface streets from San Fernando to Encino, then takes the 405 freeway to Century City and Westwood. End to end trip time is roughly 75 minutes.
Commuter Express 574 runs five southbound trips from Sylmar Metrolink to the LAX area and El Segundo, from 5:20 to 7:10 AM, and five northbound trips from 3:35 to 6 PM. End to end trip time is roughly 83 minutes.
Foothill Transit
Foothill Transit, the regional agency for the San Gabriel Valley, operates a number of express buses connecting the valley to downtown LA. The best known (and probably best in general) is the Silver Streak which shares the El Monte Busway with the metro J line. Several express routes operate commuter service to other valley locations. most of these are numbered in the 400s per the 1982 RTD scheme, but frustratingly to us fans of this scheme, Foothill also operates a series of local routes numbered in the 400s. All foothill's buses are low floor transit vehicles, with coach style seating. Most of these express routes only run on weekdays, in peak hours and peak direction, making them very limited in usefulness, with the exception of Silver Streak.
Express 490runs 10 inbound trips from Covina transit center, six of them starting further northeast at the Grand avenue park and ride in Glendora. End to end trip time is roughly 1 hour 15 minutes.
Express 493 runs 12 inbound trips from a series of surface street stops in Rowland Heights to downtown LA, via the Puente Hills Mall between 4:40 and 8:15, and 13 outbound trips between 2 and 6:15 PM. End to end trip time is roughly 1 hour 15 minutes.
Express 495 runs 14 trips from Industry Metrolink station to downtown via freeways 60 and 605, and the El Monte busway. Inbound trips depart from 4:45 to 8:40 AM, and outbound trips depart from 2:33 to 6:33 PM. End to end peak trip time is approximately 75 minutes.
Express 498 runs 13 inbound trips from the West Covina city hall park and ride to downtown LA via the 10 freeway and El Monte Busway between 4:45 and 8:45 AM, and 14 outbound trips between 2 and 6:50 PM. Peak end to end trip time is approximately 1 hour.
Express 499 runs from the Via Verde park and ride in San Dimas to downtown LA via the 10 freeway and El Monte busway. It runs 10 inbound trips from 5 to 8 AM and 10 outbound trips from 3:15 to 6:30 PM. Peak end to end trip time is roughly one hour.
Express 699 runs 18 trips from Montclair to Downtown, picking up at Montclair metrolink station and Pomona Fairplex park and ride, and dropping off on the El Monte Busway and downtown, and 16 trips outbound. Inbound trips are from 4 to 8:22 AM and outbound trips are from 2 to 6:30 PM. End to end peak scheduled trip time is approximately 93 minutes.
The Silver Streak connects Montclair, Pomona, West Covina and El Monte to downtown via the 10 freeway and the El Monte busway. During daytime hours the buses run on surface streets to serve Cal Poly Pomona as well. There is a bus every fifteen minutes during the day, every thirty early morning and late evening, and every hour overnight. Silver streak uses articulated low-floor transit buses with cushioned upholstery, which in my opinion is the best configuration for capacity and comfort. I grade Silver Streak excellent.