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| Lakewood
resident Jennifer Halas applauds during North Olmsted Mayor
Thomas O’Grady’s remarks at a meeting Monday on RTA’s proposed
fare hike and service cuts. (Photo by Larry Bennet) |
RTA
riders ask for alternatives to cuts in bus service
By Kevin Kelley
Westshore
Published Aug. 6, 2008
RTA
boss Joseph A. Calabrese described his public transit agency as
having limited choices as it faces rising diesel fuel costs and
decreased state funding.
But RTA riders showed little sympathy at a public
meeting Monday night at Rocky River’s Don Umerley Civic Center.
The hundreds who attended appealed for the agency to try anything
else to avoid the sharp cuts in service that have been proposed.
Calabrese told of fuel prices that have increased
600 percent since 2002. Income from the 1 percent Cuyahoga County
sales tax that funds roughly 70 percent of RTA’s budget has grown
by a rate of less than 1 percent during this decade, he said.
“The issue is pretty simple — our revenue has not
been keeping pace with our expenses,” Calabrese said. “And the big
issue with expenses recently has been diesel fuel.”
Calabrese asked riders to help RTA obtain more funding
from the state, which he described as one of the worst in the nation
in terms of funding public transportation.
“It’s very important that you let your elected officials
know how important this is to you because God knows, I’ve been trying
for five to eight years, and I have been relatively ineffective
at it,” he said.
The Euclid Corridor project and problems with RTA’s
new fareboxes were not responsible for the agency’s financial woes,
Calabrese said.
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| RTA
General Manager Joseph A. Calabrese speaks
about the transit agency's financial problems before a crowd
at the Rocky River Civic Center Monday evening. (West Life photo
by Larry Bennet) |
Gale Fisk, RTA’s director of management and budget,
described a proposed fare surcharge based on the price of diesel
fuel. A surcharge of 50 cents would kick in when the price per gallon
rises above $3 but below $4. Another 25 cents would be added if
the price goes to between $4 and $4.75. An additional 25 cents would
be charged if the price rises above $4.75.
But the fare surcharge only addresses half of RTA’s
budget crisis. Joel Froelich, manager of service planning for RTA,
said routes were considered for service cuts if they had low ridership,
went outside the county and were losing money, or if alternative
service was available.
When Froelich said the goal was to get people where
they needed to go even though their walk may be longer to reach
another bus line, audience members jeered.
Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough, also a member of RTA’s
board, said even though some bus lines have few riders, those riders
have no alternative means of transportation.
“Unless we can provide an alternative, we may be causing
people to actually lose their jobs,” the Westlake mayor said to
applause.
Service cuts should be the last option, Clough said.
Clough, like other mayors who spoke at the meeting,
said many residents told and wrote to him saying they purchased
their current homes or rented their apartments specifically because
it was on an RTA bus line that is now slated to be cut.
Lakewood Mayor Ed FitzGerald spoke on the need to
save the #804 Circulator, which like all circulator routes is slated
for elimination.
Noting that his city was designed around public transportation,
FitzGerald called the Lakewood Circulator “a core service for the
city of Lakewood.”
The large number of senior citizens who live in Lakewood
need RTA’s service to travel for essential services, he said. In
addition, one out of 10 residents uses RTA to get to work, the Lakewood
mayor said.
North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O’Grady, who ran against
Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary, heaped praise on the
congressman for attending the public meeting and getting involved
in the issue. O’Grady said the mayors have raised their concerns
with RTA’s leadership over the proposed cuts. Now is the time for
residents to make their voices heard, he said.
For his part, Kucinich said raising fares and cutting
service will result in fewer riders just when more people are relying
on public transportation due to the rising cost of fuel.
“It’s extremely counterproductive to cut back the
very product that RTA should be marketing at a time when the public
is more ready than ever to take a bus,” Kucinich said.
“The solution to RTA’s financial trouble is, in part,
a better marketing effort to attract customers from among those
who currently commute by automobile to seek alternatives to the
high price of gasoline,” he added.
Fairview Park Mayor Eileen Patton said all five RTA
routes serving her city will be affected by RTA’s proposal. Three
will be eliminated entirely, and two will see sharp reductions.
Once the 96F and 87F bus lines are eliminated, those
riders will have to take the 75X, which cannot possibly accommodate
the influx of new riders, Patton said.
“Removing our access to public transportation will
severely undermine the advantages of living in close proximity to
downtown Cleveland,” the Fairview Park mayor said.
Rocky River’s senior services department could not
meet the increased needs for transportation requests by its senior
residents if all the proposed service cuts take place, Rocky River
Mayor Pamela Bobst said.
Both Bobst and Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland
said all the comments they received concerned the proposed cuts
in service, not the proposed fare increases.
Sutherland said many Bay Village high school students
rely on RTA service to get to and from school and other activities.
“Our service is really going to be gutted,” she said
of the proposed cuts.
Sutherland, who said public transportation should
be expanding as a long-term solution to the nation’s energy needs,
also put in an endorsement for possible future light rail service
in the Westshore.
Stewart Church, a Lakewood resident who said he rides
every bus route serving that city, said he would rather pay a higher
fare to retain existing service.
“Cutting service is going to make me want to go and
buy a car,” he told RTA officials.
Two people did object to the proposed increase in
fares. However, most who spoke asked RTA to consider just about
anything else before they cut service.
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