West Hollywood Mayor Jeff Prang takes a turn at the wheel of a Cityline bus. The service is expected to be expanded on March 1. (photo by Richard Settle)

Changes were announced Tuesday to West Hollywood’s Cityline bus service with the goal of making it easier to get around the city.

Cityline has been operating in West Hollywood for the past two decades, with shuttle buses traveling on two routes along major thoroughfares such as Santa Monica, San Vicente and Sunset boulevards. After the city council requested an analysis to make the service more efficient, transportation staff suggested establishing one route that eliminates overlapping, while adding a new bus that will reduce wait times. The new Cityline service will begin on March 1.

“The goal was to increase ridership and make it more user-friendly. We have consolidated it into one route and streamlined it a bit,” said Perri Sloane-Goodman, a transportation program administrator for the city of West Hollywood. “Right now, you may see a bus coming every forty minutes to an hour or an hour-and-a-half. With the new service, there will be a bus every half-hour.”

Sloane-Goodman said the new Cityline service will continue to stop at all major destinations in West Hollywood, running between Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the southwest end of the line, and La Brea and Fountain avenues at the northeast terminus. Buses will simultaneously run eastbound and westbound. They will stop at the West Hollywood Library, the West Hollywood Post Office, West Hollywood City Hall and the senior center at Plummer Park. There will also be stops at all of the city’s supermarkets — Pavilions, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Gelson’s and Ralphs — as well as five apartment buildings providing affordable housing to senior citizens. Sloane-Goodman said the new line will also serve the Sunset Strip.

“It is ideal for people with a disability, or for people who live in the neighborhood and don’t have the ability to walk up the street to catch an MTA bus,” Sloane-Goodman said. “It goes through the neighborhoods, so is a great way to jump aboard and run errands without having to use your car. It provides connector service to all of the MTA bus lines.”

The city will be installing new color-coded signage — blue for westbound, orange for eastbound — at all the stops by the end of the week.

The free service will run Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the buses complete the entire route in just over one hour.

“We hope everyone will use it to get around town,” Sloane-Goodman said.

The city contracts with a private company, MV Transportation, to operate the line, and the service costs the city approximately $835,000 annually. West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang said the Cityline service is important because it provides an alternative to driving, helping alleviate traffic and parking congestion.

“We are a small city, but we want to make it as easy as possible for people to access the service and get around town,” Prang said.

For a Cityline schedule and map, visit www.weho.org/cityline.