The suburbany San Fernando Valley has historically been fervently anti-transit (until recently it was actually illegal to build light rail there), but lately it's changed tunes and is hoping Metro will build trains along several corridors (the Orange Line busway's route, the 405, Van Nuys Boulevard). Until then: there will be trolley buses to take Valleyites between malls. Oh, the Valley. Warner Center's huge Village at Westfield Topanga mall opens later this month and—thirsty for shoppers—plans to launch a "mass transit system that will serve the Warner Center area," reports the Daily News.
In its first stage, two free, red trolleys (actually buses, like the ones that run on West Hollywood's PickUp Line) will take riders between the Village and two other Westfield malls in the area—Topanga and Promenade—but eventually the company plans to extend the lines to nearby Warner Center offices during lunch hours and maybe even to apartment and condo complexes on weekends. If it works out, the fleet could end up growing and the service could stretch to the Orange Line busway.
And that's how a mall trolley bus will end up being a test of just how much the Valley loves public transportation: "We'll see who rides it, how many people use it and (whether) people are willing to huddle in the Warner Center area and not really have to leave, (making it) a place where they can live, work and play," says a rep for Westfield.
· Trolley system coming to Westfield's Village [LADN]
· All the Ways You Might Be Able to Get to the Valley One Day [Curbed LA]