720 Stop Added to Serve Skid Row
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Ask and you shall receive.
That's the message out of Skid Row this week, where Metro has added a 5th and San Pedro stop to the 720 Rapid Line in response to a request from community activist "General" Jeff Page.
Page made the request at the transit agency's February board meeting. Paul Taylor, Deputy CEO for Metro, talked to Page afterward and told him that he would see the request through.
The stop is the second added to the 720's trip through the east side of Downtown in the last year. Stops in both directions were added at 6th and Central in May. Previously the route made no stops between Main street and Soto street in Boyle Heights.
The new stop serves westbound buses only. Eastbound stops are located on 6th at Main and Central.
Guest on March 12, 2010, at 04:43PM – #1
This is a good thing. That area needs bus service, even if it is heavily homeless. I love the 720, gets me down wilshire quick.
Dana Gabbard on March 15, 2010, at 11:59AM – #2
This is bad. Yet another stop added just to satisfy myopic parochialism. Line 60 provides perfectly adequate local service in this area (and connects with the 7th/Metro rail station and Greyhound's terminal whereas the 720 does not). There is no reason for a regional service to be burdened with these stops that destroy its very value as a rapid (I should add I also object to the Beverly Glen stop near Westwood, in case you think I am merely anti-east Downtown). Sorry, but I am not celebrating.
Guest on March 15, 2010, at 12:23PM – #3
There is no need for more bus stops on the 720. The 720 is a RAPID bus, and if we keep adding bus stops to it, it'll just turn into the 20!
The 18, 53, and 62 already stop at this location. The 18 comes every 9 minutes, the 53 comes every 20 minutes, and the 62 comes every half hour. There's no point in adding the 720 to the mix.
If Metro insists on keeping a stop at 5th & San Pedro, it should come at the expense of the stop on Central near 6th. Put one in only if you take one out!