Electric battery bus service in the Antelope Valley was abruptly suspended this week, causing a transit nightmare for commuters looking to get to work, school, doctors’ appointments and more.
All transportation services using the Antelope Valley Transit Authority’s fleet of MCI D45 battery-electric commuter coaches were halted on Tuesday “out of an abundance of caution and for reasons outside of AVTA’s control,” officials stated.
At least four critical commuter lines were affected by the suspension, including services to downtown Los Angeles, Century City, the San Fernando Valley and the TRANSporter service to Newhall.
The suspension does not affect AVTA’s local service or the agency’s use of any BYD zero-emission battery electric buses, transport officials said.
Multiple frustrated commuters reached out to KTLA to figure out more about why service was canceled for the next couple of weeks; some said they were only notified of the suspension when they were handed a flyer onboard a bus Monday evening.
Commuter Herber Ramirez said that while AVTA officials directed riders to take Metrolink trains, Metrolink officials are wary to let them on.
“[Metrolink doesn’t] honor AVTA passes…they don’t know anything about what’s going on,” Ramirez said. “So when you tell them ‘Hey, I have a screenshot of a website that says you’re supposed to honor my pass as if it’s a ticket for you guys,’ they say ‘Yeah, right’.”
Another AVTA bus rider told KTLA that his regular commute costs him $9, but with the interruption of services, he was forced to spend $30 to get to work on Tuesday. To top it off, he said he had to leave at 4:45 a.m. to get to work, rather than his usual departure time of 6 a.m.
No official word on why the bus services were canceled was released by AVTA, although some riders speculated that it may have to do with the electric batteries catching fire.
KTLA has reached out to the Antelope Valley Transit Authority for comment but has yet to receive a response.