TriMet finalizes service cuts

After several open house discussions and thousands of comments, TriMet has finalized its list of MAX and bus service cuts.  Things look very similar to the original plan except for some changes to bus lines 31, 63, 89, 152 and 157 – the service cuts to these five bus lines won’t be as drastic as originally planned due to public comments about these lines serving as connections to services such as schools and jobs.

Again, here’s the run down of the proposed service cuts (with my comments in read):

Recession impacts TriMet

TriMet gets most of its revenues–55 percent–from the employer payroll tax. With the worsening economy and unemployment climbing, TriMet’s projected budget gap has grown from $13.5 million to $23.6 million for the FY10 budget. The agency has taken numerous steps to reduce costs and improve efficiency including an 8 percent across-the-board expense cut, a hiring and salary freeze, furloughs and projected staff layoffs.

TriMet is using a portion of federal stimulus funds to offset some planned agency investments, and in turn, reduce service cuts to about half of what would have been required without stimulus funds. If economic conditions worsen, additional service cuts will likely be needed. TriMet will have a better picture of actual payroll tax receipts for the first quarter of 2009 in mid-May. If additional service cuts are necessary, they would be proposed over the summer.

Service cut proposal

• The original proposal called for elimination of 12 bus lines that either had low ridership or alternative service nearby. Based on public feedback, TriMet is proposing to eliminate four lines: 41-Tacoma, 74-Lloyd District/Southeast, 86-Alderwood and 153-South End Rd Loop. (this seems reasonable; these lines are low ridership lines)
• 20 lines would have major changes to route, frequency and/or hours of operation: 1-Vermont, 15-Belmont, 18-Hillside, 19-Woodstock, 27-Market/Main, 33-Fremont, 34-River Rd, 36-South Shore, 37-Lake Grove, 55-Hamilton, 58-Canyon Rd, 59-Walker/Park Way, 60-Leahy Rd, 63-Washington Park, 70-12th Ave, 85-Swan Island, 88-Hart/198th Ave, 89-Tanasbourne, 156-Mather Road and 157-Happy Valley.  A new fixed route bus line will replace the Cedar Mill Shuttle and Line 60-Leahy Rd. (as a 15-Belmont rider, this worries me a bit.  But I’m assuming most of the change will be during late evening / middle of the day / weekend hours.  It remains to be seen what exactly the extent is to the language: “major changes to route, frequency and / or hours of operation.”)
• 15 bus lines would have some or all weekend service discontinued: 1-Vermont, 10-Harold, 17-NW 21st Ave/St Helens Rd, 33-Fremont, 34-River Rd, 39-Lewis & Clark, 43-Taylors Ferry Rd, 47-Baseline/Evergreen, 48-Cornell, 51-Vista, 59-Walker/Park Way, 63-Washington Park, 67-Jenkins/158th Ave, 156-Mather Rd and 157-Happy Valley. (My wife is a Lewis & Clark grad; she’s expressed concern over the 39 being on this list for students who do not own an automobile or another form of transportation who wish to go downtown during the weekends.)
• The Washington Park Shuttle that currently runs from Memorial Day through September will be extended to run weekends during May and October to provide connections to Washington Park attractions.

MAX service

• The start and end of MAX Blue, Red and Yellow Line service remains the same, but frequency of early morning and late evening service primarily on weekends changes from 15 to 30 minutes. (While this is a huge bummer, I’m OK with the time of day they’re planning on cutting down the frequency.  It’s really the only time that they could cut.)
• The future Green Line that will open in September 2009 will have less service than originally planned. (Maybe a lesson learned from the WES (i.e. not so spectacular ridership thus far)?  I will say in terms of line placement, the Green line is much more attractive for riders than the WES).

Next steps

A first reading and hearing of the service change ordinance is scheduled for the April 22, 2009, Board of Directors meeting. No formal action will be taken at this meeting. The board is scheduled to vote on the service cut proposal at its May 27, 2009, meeting.

Get those rules front and center

My brother, Adam Bullock, had an interesting thought the other day: why doesn’t TriMet have a “rules to ride by” poster or something front and center when you get on the bus or the MAX.  The bus is easy – just that “wall” behind the driver sits:

Have a nice large poster on the immediate right.  The MAX might be a little tougher – maybe on the clear wall near each entrance / exit point.

Because I’m wondering: people that are eating on the MAX or bus or otherwise, do they know that they shouldn’t?  Do they just not care?

In any case, why not try to get the rules more in the face of passengers?

No food for you!

We’ve all seen it on the MAX, bus and streetcar: some people sneaking some bites of their sandwich, snacking on some Mentos or otherwise.  Eating happens!

Photo by iChris via Flickr

TriMet’s official stance on food + drink on their buses and trains is this:

“Eating is not allowed on TriMet vehicles, but you can bring food and drinks on board in closed containers.”

I think that’s an extremely fair stance on bringing food or drink on-board; you can bring your food on-board but you just can’t eat it.

There’s this individual who sometimes rides when I do that always brings this bread with brown sugar on it and snacks on it.  It really isn’t the best kind of snacking food because inevitably the sugar really does go just about everywhere.  After the individual is done eating, there’s a nice coating of sugar all over her clothes which, with some after-eating shirt-shaking, is flung from her clothes to pretty much all over.

Is it OK then for TriMet to ticket this individual?  I would think not.  Is it an operator’s duty to address the individual and ask him / her to stop eating and put the food back into its closed container?  I don’t think that fits the job description.

It all comes down to something I’ve said numerous times before: when riding public transportation, we’re really all in it together.  Maybe it’s the public transportation rider’s responsibility to read the 7 Rules for Riding TriMet and abide by them; maybe a more outspoken rider should pipe up and ask the person to stop eating.

What are your thoughts?  Should eating be allowed on TriMet trains and buses?

MAX fare internal enforcement fail

As I was boarding a #20 last night after work, an individual was boarding behind me.  I overheard that this individual “lost” his bus fare receipt and that he “needed to get to Gresham.”

What did the bus operator say?  “Sorry, no fare, no ride”?

Nope!  The bus operator said, “Well, go take the MAX – that’ll take you to Gresham.  It’s over that way.”

Maybe I’m jumping to a conclusion… but was the bus operator in fact suggesting that the individual could ride the MAX without purchasing fare to get to Gresham with that statement?  It seems like it to me.

The ease of fare evasion is one of the MAX’s greatest faults. It’s an ongoing problem.  It’s costing TriMet many thousands (millions?) of dollars.  If you have bus operators who work for your company suggesting that someone should take the MAX if they’ve “lost” their fare, you know that this is a huge problem.