NEWS UPDATE: Governor Signs Frazier Park Bus Service Bill

  • Daran Williams came up with the idea to put pressure on the powers that be for bus service here. He launched the effort to collect over 900 signatures stating desire for the bus service.

    Daran Williams came up with the idea to put pressure on the powers that be for bus service here. He launched the effort to collect over 900 signatures stating desire for the bus service.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Tuesday, July 22) — Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) today announced that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed Senate Bill 1263. The measure will allow Amtrak to provide bus service to Frazier Park and the Mountain Communities by way of its Santa Clarita-to-Lebec “feeder bus” route.

[Last December, Frazier Park resident Daran Williams began taking a petition around the Mountain Communities asking Amtrak to schedule bus stops here on the company’s route between Bakersfield and Santa Clarita. Williams has, so far, collected 906 signatures to show Amtrak that his community means business.]
 
Feeder buses are used to extend travel service from Amtrak train depots to neighboring communities to extend passenger destinations to cities where passenger trains do not, or cannot stop. Federal law presently prevents Amtrak from providing bus service to communities along these feeder routes to prevent competition with bus companies such as Greyhound, but that law gives the State authority to make exceptions for isolated areas.
 
Last year the legislature passed a bill to allow similar stops along an Amtrak route between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe as long as no competing bus service was available. Senator Ashburn was subsequently contacted in January by Anne Weber of the Mountain Communities Family Resource Center and received petitions from local residents requesting a similar bill in order to provide bus service to Frazier Park.
 
“It has been a pleasure this year to move this bill through the legislative process for our local residents.  It is always very satisfying when we can find solutions to make life a bit easier for the hard working residents of the 18th Senate District,” said Senator Ashburn.  “Now we will be able to put to good use the half-empty Amtrak buses that have been passing through Frazier Park.  This new law will be a win-win for everyone involved.”
 
The bill will take effect January 1st, 2009.

This is part of the July 18, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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