TriMet cutting service?
Posted by Christian in TriMet on Feb 12th, 2009 | 8 commentsThe recession has impacted the TriMet budget, with the agency thinking about cutting service to help ride out this recent economic storm. TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen said that the only option to even attempt to stay within budget now is to cut service for specific routes as well as reducing service on off-peak hours for others.
Specific bus routes on the chopping block or service reductions have not been announced.
Ideas that have been proposed by TriMet are:
- Reducing the frequency of service on both bus and MAX lines. This includes reducing the planned Green Line service in the early mornings and late evenings, primarily on weekends, when it opens in September 2009.
- Discontinuing low-ridership routes, primarily on lines where alternative service is available. This could mean discontinuation of a dozen lines.
- Reducing frequency or span of service on several bus routes in off-peak hours.
- As the economy improves, TriMet will evaluate when and where it can restore service.
What do you all think about this? Obviously, I don’t think anyone thought TriMet would be immune to this recession… and while their ideas seem like a fine idea to try to stay within budget, I think (and continue to believe) that the agency isn’t doing enough to enforce riders to pay appropriate fare. But then again, in order to do that, they would need to rethink the entire infrastructure of their fare system (turnstyle-entry for MAX platform / areas? Or even in MAX trains?) which obviously takes time and money.
Kevin wrote me to voice his displeasure:
“Why won’t Tri-Met get serious about enforcing fares and the smoking ban before cutting scheduling?”
TriMet is planning on open houses for the public to voice their opinion. They will take place on February 25, 26, and 27 and March 3. Times and locations will be available this Friday along with the specifics on service cuts.
8 Responses to “ “TriMet cutting service?”
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Personally I think they should just increase the payroll tax. It’s currently 0.6718%. Maybe if it was increased to .8% we could not only get the existing service back, but also add night-owl service. Then TriMet would be useful to a whole new group of people — those who go out Fri/Sat nights.
To put it in perspective, the tax from 1995 was .6176%. That’s an 8.7% increase over 14 years. In the same time span, gas gone up from $1.06/g to the current “low” of $1.89.
Night owls likely don’t cover the cost of running the buses. And what lines would they run? All of them? Because people that drink too much deserve it!
Nope. Bad idea. It is night service itself that will probably get cut, or reduced. Too many buses with too many seats open.
I’ve always thought that there are too many stops downtown. That really slows the buses down. During some eve rush hours, it has taken me 40 minutes just to get out of downtown. Hopefully that will change once the new MAX lines are put in and buses put back, but I really think Tri met can pull some stops to save some cash.
As for payroll, well, what did they expect? The economy is sucking, and it’s going to get worse still. It is now that we need to invest heavily in public transit, not automobiles. Driving cars for commuting purposes costs way too much money and is way too inefficient. Sure Americans love their cars, but those cars really put us in a bind.
Another thing: I never understood why MAX was added North of Morrison on 5th and 6th. Why not extend the MAX south only from Morrison/yamhill to PSU? The 5th and 6th streets can be easily served by North/South buses, light rail doesn’t need to cross busy burnside into old town. Seems very inefficient to me.
I’m back to riding my bike again. 6 months out with a herniated disc/recovery. Onward.
indy: I think a reasonable start is simply running the frequent service routes at once per hour.
The 9, for example, stops at SE Powell & 39th 80 times on a weekday, ranging from 5am to 1am. Is it really a big deal to add 3 more trips?
Not everyone out at 1am is drinking. Some people just want a ride home from a late movie, or Coffee Time, or the airport.
Regarding night service, check out the Line 57 schedule. For instance, there’s a bus that leaves Beaverton after 2 AM (it connects with the 1:30 Line 58 bus from Portland).
These cuts are not acceptable.
Poor management on top of these so called economic hard times have created this disaster.
I know this company was getting overextended when they began the green line.
Now they have a nice convenient excuse to cover up their mismanagement.
And that F***ING WES STOLE $5,000,000 out of the budget!
I hope that trimet does not use a broad brush and say things like we are going to stop all night runs or make service 1 hour across the board. Trimet has the numbers on the most costly lines and they should cut those first. Knowing the numbers means you can make cuts that will make a difference..
as far as fare enforcement it is so hard as a bus driver to enforce fares. We have so many types of fares and so many of them fade and cant be read. When its pissing down rain adn 29 people are standing there loading I just dont have time to inspect every payment.
A list of all TriMet routes, and their productivity (boarding rides per vehicle hour), can be found in TriMet’s Transit Investment Plan, page 111, found on the TriMet website.
The WORST performing TriMet route? 79 – South End Road (now 153 South End Loop).
Second worst? 84 Kelso/Boring. **NOT SCHEDULED FOR ELIMINATION**
27 Market/Main is third, it too is not on the cut list.
Clearly TriMet is selecting bus routes to cut not necessarily based upon ridership or productivity, but also possible loss to tax revenue from outlying areas where the elimination of the bus route also means elimination of the taxing district.
Another good example is the 154-Willamette route (serving West Linn).
Meanwhile, you’ve got TriMet eliminating trips on the 8-Jackson Park (second most productive route), 9-Powell (third most productive route), 15-Belmont (11th most productive route)…
Yes, some of the cuts make sense, but that’s the problem – SOME of them do, and some of them DO NOT. TriMet is using some crazy logic with regards to their service cuts/eliminations while ignoring other issues:
1. Where are the cuts at Center Street in non-customer facing positions like service planning?
2. What about across-the-board management pay cuts?
3. Why did TriMet purchase a new fleet of NON-REVENUE Supervisor vehicles?
4. Who is paying for the WES cost overruns? Why isn’t WES service being cut back — why does TriMet continue to pay the hefty bill each month for free Wi-Fi?
5. Why aren’t park-and-ride users being told to pay up?
6. Why isn’t TriMet considering charging a premium fare for rush-hour trips, or for express bus trips (as is common with most transit agencies)? You get better service, it’s fair to require a better fare; especially since express buses are commonly near the bottom in terms of cost recovery — since they spend more time deadheading rather than carrying passengers.
7. Why isn’t TriMet putting a stop to future expansions – if we can’t afford what we have, it doesn’t make sense to expand.
8. Why isn’t TriMet being aggressive to the City of Portland and ending the unfair subsidy to the Streetcar to the tune of $3 million annually? Since the City is effectively competing with TriMet in the Streetcar area, why aren’t TriMet bus routes being cut back in the Streetcar area?
9. Why isn’t TriMet cutting back on MAX operating expenses – there is no reason why TriMet needs to operate 15 minute service all day west of Beaverton and east of Gateway.