As fall approaches and students begin their daily trek to and from school, Long Beach Transit (LBT) has made multiple schedule and route changes in order to handle the increased ridership.

This is particularly important following the budget crisis experienced by Long Beach Unified School District, which had to cut its entire busing program in order to balance its budget. It is expected that the thousands of K-12 students who depended on their school for transportation will now lean on LBT.

“Please be aware that LBT buses may experience overcrowding during the early morning and early afternoon hours,” said Kevin Lee, spokesperson for LBT, in a press release. “LBT will accommodate the increase in LBUSD-related boardings as much as possible, however customers are strongly encouraged to plan ahead and keep in mind alternative routes and different modes of transportation.”

The following changes should be noted:

  • Route 1 – Easy Avenue & Line 20 – Cherry / Downey: There will be minor weekend schedule adjustments.
  • Routes 71/72 combined – Alamitos / Orange: To help reduce congestion in the First Street Transit Gallery, weekend trips arriving and leaving the Gallery from 8:35 PM to 9:35 PM will be changed to 9:05 PM & 10:05 PM respectively.
  • Route 81 – 10th Street: Buses leaving the downtown area will turn west on 7th Street instead of 3rd Street, giving greater access to the City Place Mall and other retailers along Long Beach Blvd. Buses will turn north onto Pacific from 7th Street and continue the current route.
  • Routes 91/92/93/94/96 combined – 7th Street / Bellflower / Clark / Woodruff: Service returns to the fall/winter schedule with more frequent bus service during peak hours. Minor Saturday schedule adjustments.
  • Route 96 “ZAP” – 7th Street: The “ZAP” resumes one-way only service during peak morning and afternoon hours when school is in session.
  • Routes 111/112 combined – Broadway / Lakewood / Clark: Service returns to fall/winter schedule with more frequent bus service.
  • Route 121 – Ocean / 2nd / Belmont Shore / CSULB: The route will no longer travel to the Outer Circle. Now, coming from CSULB it will turn south onto Clark from Atherton, northwest on PCH, north on Ximeno, east on Atherton and resume the current route. Additional buses will be scheduled from PCH at Park (in front of the CSULB Beachside College) to CSULB on Monday – Thursday, resulting in service every 10 minutes between 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM Before 12 PM, buses will layover at the CSULB Beachside College. After 12 PM, buses will layover on Atherton at Ximeno. To improve efficiency, the route will also no longer travel to Ocean and Termino but instead veer north from Ocean Blvd and travel directly onto Livingston Drive towards Belmont Shore. There will also be minor weekend schedule adjustments.
  • Route 151 – 4th Street: Route will have minor weekday schedule changes. The timepoint at Alamitos Avenue has been moved to Atlantic Avenue to improve connections.
  • Route 171 – PCH / CSULB: Service returns to fall/winter schedule with more frequent bus service. Fifteen minute service frequency will operate later in the afternoon.
  • Passport – Queen Mary / Pine Avenue: Route will return to a fall/winter schedule and will operate less frequently due to lower ridership during these seasons. It will operate every 14 minutes on the weekday and 10 minutes on the weekend.Long Beach Transit Service Change August 25, 2013 Page 2 of 2
  • AquaLink & AquaBus Water Taxis: The last day of service is Sunday, September 29, 2013. Service will then commence again in summer 2014.