Tour attendees posing after arrival at the Foothill Transit Arcadia Division. Photo by Foothill Transit and the USC Price Alumni Association.

On September 17th, 20 USC students and 3 USC Price alumni attended METRANS’ second and final field trip of Fall 2016, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Operations and Maintenance Facility for Foothill Transit in Arcadia, CA. This field trip was a collaboration between METRANS, the USC Price Alumni Association, and Foothill Transit, the primary public transit agency for the San Gabriel Valley and the largest municipal transit operator in Los Angeles County.

Students and alumni boarded one of Foothill Transit’s newest buses and were brought from campus to the 65,000 sq. ft. Arcadia Division Operations and Maintenance Facility. About half of Foothill Transit’s 315 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses operate from the property, which includes a dispatch center, crew rest areas, and vehicle maintenance and refueling facilities.

 Touring the bus maintenance bays at the Arcadia Division. Photo by Griffin Kantz.

On arrival, attendees were greeted by  Foothill Transit Executive Director – and newly elected Chair of the American Public Transportation Association – Doran Barnes, who led the group indoors for a presentation on his agency’s unique history, structure, priorities, and goals for the future. The attendees were given an opportunity to ask and understand how these priorities and goals are influenced by new technologies, changes in local and national politics, and growing public responsiveness to the threat of climate change. Barnes strove to emphasize that for Foothill Transit, the customer experience of riding transit was of paramount importance, placing safety, courtesy, and quality as their highest priorities. He said he also sees Foothill as among the vanguard of U.S. transit agencies embracing greener fuel technologies and that he seeks to establish an all-electric bus fleet by 2030.

Barnes then introduced William Jackson and Tim Reed, General Manager and Assistant Maintenance Manager of the Arcadia Facility respectively, to summarize the role and general functions of the maintenance and servicing facilities on the Arcadia Division grounds. Jackson and Reed led the attendees outside on a thorough and exclusive tour of the several maintenance bays, the replacement parts reserve, the refueling stations, and the drive-through washing station. The two of them, along with Barnes addressed the questions posed by the students and the alumni on site security, maintenance costs, safety precautions, and environmental impact abatement. They also highlighted the specific physical changes Foothill Transit anticipates making to the grounds to accommodate an all-electric bus fleet in future years.

USC BSPPD student Soobin Kim examining Foothill Transit’s newly purchased bi-level bus, parked for retrofitting at the Arcadia Division. Photo by Jimmy Mai.

Once the site tour concluded, attendees returned to the private bus to travel to the field trip’s second tour site: the electric bus facilities at the Pomona Transit Center. From there, Foothill Transit has operated 15 electric buses on a single pilot route for the past six years. Barnes demonstrated how the vehicles dock for recharging each time they stop at the Pomona center, via an overhead rapid recharging console which attaches to the buses’ rear roof. The vehicles have a range of 35 miles on a single charge and emit no greenhouse gases as they operate, although they are more expensive than their CNG counterparts.

One student asked how well Foothill Transit riders had acquainted to the new bus technology, and Barnes shared that once patrons became familiar with the buses’ recharging needs the line actually became more popular. Another student inquired about the cost of providing electricity for recharging, and Barnes explained in detail the special funding arrangements Foothill Transit and Southern California Edison are negotiating.

Foothill Transit Executive Director Doran Barnes detailing the interagency cooperation needed to establish the electric bus facility at Pomona Transit Center in 2010. Photo by Griffin Kantz.

Following this second site visit, attendees rode back to the USC campus in a final journey on board the private bus.

METRANS has brought students to Foothill Transit each fall for several years. METRANS and the USC Price Alumni Association are grateful to the staff of Foothill for once again arranging this visit and devoting their time to make it a unique and valuable experience.

Griffin Kantz

Author Griffin Kantz is a third-year undergraduate studying sustainable planning in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. He can be reached at [email protected].