Cal State Northridge officials called this week for improved transportation options for the university’s students, ahead of a San Fernando Valley transportation summit.
University administrators, who were joined by students and Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, pointed to a lack of light rail, subway and rapid bus lines near the CSUN campus.
“We have story after story after story of students spending hours on public transportation to get here,” CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison said.
Public transportation would serve as “an essential link in their (the students’) aspirations for a better life,” she said.
CSUN Associated Students President Jorge Reyes said students “suffer when it comes to night classes, because of the lack of constant buses.”
“Some have had to pass up internships,” Reyes said. “I don’t own a vehicle, and in the past, I’ve had to rearrange my class schedule in order to take a bus home at night,” while other students “wake up before the sun comes up and take two or three buses to get to class, and later to their jobs.”
Hertzberg support their call, saying that “it is the Valley’s turn.”
He invited the public to take part in the Valley Transportation Summit, which begins at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Grand Salon at the University Student Union on the east side of campus.
Hertzberg organized the event with CSUN, the United Chambers of Commerce, the Valley Economic Alliance and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilman Mitch Englander and Metro Deputy Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Wiggins are expected to attend.
University officials are advocating for rapid bus service between the campus and the proposed East Valley Transit Corridor rail system along Nordhoff Street; a bus rapid transit connection to the Orange Line along Reseda Boulevard; added capacity at the campus transit center; and relocating the Northridge Metrolink station east to Reseda at Parthenia Street.
