Big Blue Bus


The Santa Monica Big Blue Bus is a municipal bus operator in the Westside region of Los Angeles County, that provides local and bus rapid transit service in Santa Monica and adjacent neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Express service is also provided to Downtown Los Angeles and Union Station.

History

The impetus for the creation was a fare increase on the Pacific Electric interurban trains between Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines was founded on 14 April 1928, and launched its first route, choosing a blue livery. Culver CityBus was founded in 4 March 1928, making it the second oldest municipal bus line in California and the oldest public transit bus system still operating in Los Angeles County. San Francisco Municipal Railway began streetcar service 28 December 1912.
Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines kept its base fare at 10 cents for a long time. The Santa Monica bus connected with the Los Angeles Railway and Pacific Electric Railway at Pico and Rimpau Boulevards in the Mid-City section of Los Angeles. This historic terminus continues to be an important transfer point for bus riders along Pico Boulevard between Metro route 30 to Downtown Los Angeles and Big Blue Bus to the Westside.
The Big Blue Bus is considered one of the best bus services in the Los Angeles area. The system won the American Public Transportation Association’s Outstanding Transportation System award in 1987, 1992, 1997, 2000 and 2011. The Big Blue Bus did not raise its regular fare above 50 cents until 2002, when it became 75 cents. In contrast, most public bus lines in California were charging fares of a dollar or more well before 2000. There was no monthly pass until August 2010 except for the EZ Pass, and unlike other EZ Pass agencies, Metrolink fare media are not accepted. However, allowing for the inevitability of traffic delays on weekday afternoons, the Big Blue Bus system provides frequent and convenient service to most neighborhoods in its service area. Many routes serve UCLA.
The Big Blue Bus was one of the last transit agencies using the GMC New Look buses; they were retired in 2005. Big Blue Bus received the last New Looks ever built. The last one built, #5180, was driven off the property in May 2013 after being donated to the Museum of Bus Transportation in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which preserves the bus. It was also the first transit agency in the State of California to use the Grumman-Flxible Model 870 advanced design transit buses equipped with Lift-U wheelchair lifts beginning in 1978, and the third customer after Atlanta's MARTA, and the Connecticut's Department of Transportation's CT Transit's order of these buses. These buses never experienced the same chronic structural problems that plagued these early vehicles that were also sold to other transit agencies. These were also the very first production buses built with wheelchair lifts before ADA effectively became law of the land in 1990.
For 20 years until December 1999 Santa Monica Bank ran a series of humorous ads on the back of the buses. Examples include "Old and wrinkled is beautiful. Especially in large denominations", "Go invest, young man", "Was it his eyes? His lips? His jumbo CD?" and "After 20 years on the bus, we've reached our stop". The campaign ended as the bank was absorbed by U.S. Bank.
The system was started by former Brentwood resident Rudolph F. Brunner, who later sold the system thinking it wouldn't amount to any more than a few dollars a week.

Incidents

On November 20, 2012, a Big Blue Bus turned left in front of an oncoming motorcyclist, which resulted in the 25-year-old man's death. The accident occurred at approximately 10:33 a.m. at the triangular intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Marquez in the Pacific Palisades. Only buses are allowed to make the left turn, a maneuver that has been determined to be too dangerous for other vehicles.
On June 7, 2013, Bus 4057 of Big Blue Bus was among several vehicles fired at during a thirteen-minute killing spree that left six people dead, including the gunman, and four others wounded. Three women suffered minor injuries aboard the bus, one from shrapnel-type injuries and the other two from injuries unrelated to the gunfire. Approximately two dozen people were inside the bus at the time of the shooting. The attack on Bus 4057 marked the first time a Big Blue Bus came under attack by a gunman in its 85-year service.

Routes

Big Blue Bus operates 14 local routes, 4 Rapid routes, and a couple of the local routes go into the Los Angeles City which are the 7,R7,3, R3 and the R12.

Current

Make/
Model		ImageYearManufacturerEngine/
Transmission		Fuel PropulsionRetiredNotes
1801-18072018GilligBRT CNG 29'
Cummins Westport L9NAllison B400R
  • Entered service on 4/2/2018.
  • Sport the newer "Big Blue Bus" livery.
1808-18262018GilligBRT CNG 40'Cummins Westport L9NAllison B400R
  • Entered service 10/10/18
  • Will replaced the remaining 2004 New Flyer L40LF buses.

Retired

In popular culture

''Speed''

The most famous Big Blue Bus is probably the one rigged with a bomb in 1994's hit movie Speed. Driving through Los Angeles at rush hour, the bus has to keep its speed over 50 mph or the bomb on the bus will detonate.
Two humorous slogans Santa Monica Bank used on Big Blue Buses appeared in the film. The bus operator in the movie is called the Santa Monica Intercity Bus Lines, a barely fictionalized version of the Big Blue Bus's official name, the Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines. Even more tellingly, the bus in the film is a General Motors "New Look" bus, introduced in 1959 but kept in prominent and active service by Santa Monica until early 2005, long after most other American cities had retired the retro-looking bus.
In another effort to differentiate the movie's bus from any real-world bus, the headsigns on the Speed bus display:
However, number 33 buses are operated by Metro, not Big Blue, and run on Venice Boulevard, not the Santa Monica Freeway. The closest thing to the movie bus's routing is Santa Monica's number 10 express route.
The bus number was 2525, not within any equipment number range operated by the real company at that time.
It should also be noted that at the time the movie was released, Santa Monica's GM New Look fleet were the Canadian-built versions with wheelchair lifts; the US-built versions were retired in 1990 to make room for the Classics.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''

In an episode that originally aired on May 15, 2007, the ABC late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was filmed on a New Flyer L40LF model LNG bus. In this episode, titled Jimmy Kimmel Live on a Bus, Kimmel sat behind the desk, which was rigged to fit in a bus. This particular Santa Monica Big Blue Bus that was used in the episode was driven by veteran bus driver Erskins Robinson, who picked up unsuspecting passengers along his route. The celebrity guests who appeared in the Jimmy Kimmel Live on a Bus episode were Paula Abdul, Flavor Flav, and musical guest Feist.

The Doors

A Blue Bus is referred to twice in The Doors's classic 1967 song "The End", when singer Jim Morrison says "The blue bus is calling us", and "Meet me at the back of the blue bus".

Raymond Chandler

In Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely, first published in 1940, he writes as protagonist Philip Marlowe, describing a scene in Bay City :

[Curb Your Enthusiasm]

In the episode ”Namaste", Larry David is forced to catch a bus, an activity he is not accustomed to. The eandevor ends with Larry being kicked off the bus.
The bus station is the station in Brentwood which serves lines 14 and 18.