BURBANK : Metrolink Shuttle Service Is Expanded

Shuttle service from Burbank’s Metrolink station was expanded Wednesday after the Burbank City Council approved $331,000 to pay for additional shuttles and new routes needed to accommodate an influx of rail commuters brought on by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake.

Local officials hope that part of that money will be reimbursed by federal earthquake relief agencies. Ridership on the shuttles, previously limited to use by companies that are part of a local transportation management organization, will be opened to the general public to qualify for the federal help.

Since the earthquake, shuttle ridership from the Burbank Metrolink station has increased by more than 1,000%, from 120 riders a day to as many as 1,450, officials said.

In response, Burbank’s Media District Transportation Management Organization has added five new shuttles--two with 17-passenger capacities and three with 44-passenger capacities. The organization now provides the shuttle service to employees of member companies.

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday approved $260,000 in funds to help the organization expand the service. Of that amount, $150,000 may be reimbursable from the federal government. The $260,000 also includes $110,000 to provide a necessary local match to a pre-earthquake grant to the organization from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The funding has allowed the organization to add three new stops on the route between the Metrolink station and the Media District, where many studios are located, said Judith Johnston-Weston, Transportation Management Organization executive director.

New express routes for shuttles from the Metrolink station to the following locations were added Wednesday, Johnston-Weston said: the Riverside Drive/Alameda Avenue area near Disney Studios, St. Joseph Medical Center and Providencia High School; Kenwood Avenue between Alameda Avenue and Buena Vista Street, the location of the Burbank Tower office building and the Disney Channel Building; and at Hollywood Way and Olive Avenue, where Warner Bros. and other companies are located.

The City Council also approved $71,000 for a shuttle to be run by another organization, the Burbank City Centre Transportation Management Assn., which will work with other employers. That shuttle, when it begins operating, would run between the Metrolink station and the Burbank Airport with as many as nine stops.

However, that shuttle service cannot begin until the city signs a contract with the Burbank City Centre TMA, said G. William Lundgren, the city’s transportation administrator. That contract, along with a formal agreement with the Media District TMO, is to go before the City Council for approval in a week or two, Lundgren said.