Responding to impassioned public comments, CEO and GM Joe Calabrese said that he knew these reductions, which will be implemented on March 11, will inflict pain on RTA’s customers. He said, though, that given forthcoming budget cuts, he was confident this decision will inflict the least amount of pain.
Additional service cuts and layoffs are anticipated later in 2018, as is an additional $0.25 fare hike, (the first of which was initiated in 2016). Earlier this month, Calabrese estimated that as many as 200 employees may be laid off this year. Yesterday, he said that while exact numbers were difficult to predict, RTA would “significantly cut” the total hours of labor.
Here are the routes that will see service reductions in March. Calabrese maintained that these were the least-used routes and times, but this still sucks. The fact that the east-side Blue and Green rapid lines will only have trains arriving every 20 minutes during the morning and evening rush is a shocker, as are the reductions to the the main west-side routes — #22 (Lorain), #26 (Detroit) and #55 (CSU Line) — at both peak and non-peak hours.
Better download that Transit app, if you haven’t already.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2018.
Ya know, this is ridiculous and really makes me wonder where cities are placing their priorities. In California’s Bay Area, the population has increased to an insane degree (lots of tech workers, and temporary), the roads have started to rival the clich log jams of LA, and– guess what?– the public transit system has simultaneously cut routes and boosted fares! WTF?
Great way to encourage all of us to save gas, spare the air and maybe even save us some pennies in the long run. Like too many situations now, this one looks irritatingly-obvious.
Good call on reducing the 81. It runs nearly empty everyday. Glad I’ll be hearing that annoying recording less – “bus is turning, pedestrian the bus is turning” – every times it rounds the corner next to my house!!
Shut the whole thing down save the taxpayers money. It’s an employment playground for politicians.
Combine Metroparks with RTA.