Express bus line offers students options



By Sarah Marzouk
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer


If you commute to Cal State Long Beach from the greater Los Angeles area and spend hours in traffic every day, Metro has a solution for you.

Metro recently began a new express bus line, the 577X, which travels directly from El Monte to Norwalk and continues straight into Cal State Long Beach in just under an hour. For anyone who commutes from Los Angeles and its surrounding areas, this is great news.

The new express bus line, which travels the majority of its journey on U.S. Highway 605 was implemented on Dec. 16 of last year.

The bus begins its journey at the El Monte Transit Center and travels directly to the Norwalk Metro Green Line station. From there it continues into Long Beach stopping at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and finally CSULB.

In its entirety, the journey is about 50 minutes long, about half the time it takes a single rider to navigate through the parking lots at school.

Up until the opening of the 577X express bus line there was no easy way for bus riders to travel to CSULB from Norwalk and its surrounding areas.

“ There was no service going in that direction at all,” said Kimberly Upton of Metro.

Upton revealed that even though there was no evidence of complaints from riders who needed a line traveling that direction, the
577X had been on the drawing board for years.

“ There was definitely a need for such a service,” Upton said.

Besides the obvious need for the 577X, it was started because there is a court order Metro follows which states that Metro must provide sufficient bus paths to all of the Los Angeles area.

Metro has been very pleased with the results of employing the new 577X bus line. Upton reported no unforeseen disadvantages to fashioning the new express line.

Maureen Clemon travels by bus to CSULB and said if she had means of getting to the Norwalk bus station she would probably consider using the new bus line.

“ I will definitely use the new express line,” said Liz Cuyuch.

Cuyuch lives in Norwalk about five minutes from the bus station and thinks the new bus line is a great idea. Cuyuch currently drives to school every day but says she will start to use the new express line.

“ It will save me gas money and I wouldn’t have to worry about trying to find parking at school.”

Buses depart regularly and are very convenient for student’s busy schedules. Metro also offers student passes to ride the bus.

Instead of paying a fee every day, any student can purchase a student pass for a flat fee of $30 a month.

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