Riders dread Community Transit cuts

Published 10:56 pm Sunday, January 17, 2010

MARYSVILLE — Single mom Jennifer Phillips rides a bus from Marysville to her part-time job in north Seattle, including on Sundays.

Now Community Transit is proposing to suspend all Sunday service as part of its plan to save $5 million this year in response to declining revenues.

If Phillips can’t ride the bus on Sundays, she said, she might have to go on public assistance.

Losing one day of work per week would mean losing $400 a month in income, Phillips said at a packed meeting in Marysville last week.

“I barely get three days a week of work,” she said. Phillips has looked for other opportunities but so far has come up empty, she said.

Phillips is one of many bus riders who are protesting the planned reductions. Community Transit is also proposing to cut most early-morning service and shorten other routes, and is planning a 25-cent fare hike per ride on all local routes.

Community Transit officials say they hate reducing service but have no other choice. The agency must save $11 million in 2011 in addition to $5 million this year. The total budget for 2010 is $112.2 million.

The Community Transit board of directors, made up of elected officials from around the county, is scheduled to decide on the cuts March 4. More meetings are scheduled before then. If approved, the changes would take effect in June.

“I’m very sorry for the reason for this meeting,” Community Transit chief executive officer Joyce Eleanor told the standing-room-only crowd of about 70 people at the Marysville Library on Thursday. “We do not want to do this.”

Some riders say the agency is unfairly balancing the cuts on the backs of Boeing employees, who make up a large part of the early morning ridership, and people who depend on the bus on Sundays.

Community Transit is cutting routes that serve the earliest Boeing shift that begins at 5:30 a.m., Eleanor said, but the others would remain.

Still, Dan Scherrer of Granite Falls says he would have to drive to Lake Stevens to catch a bus to get to his 6 a.m. shift if his current route is cut.

“That’s the majority of my trip,” he said.

Eleanor said cutting early-morning and Sunday service is more economical than cutting across the board because it reduces overhead as well. The maintenance shop won’t have to open as early or on Sundays.

Also, ridership is lower on Sundays and holidays and the agency doesn’t want to discourage riders from using its core weekday service, officials say.

Community Transit is encouraging people working early-morning Boeing shifts to form vanpools. Some employees say that’s not an option for them.

Early morning runs on route 277 from Gold Bar and route 247 from Stanwood to Everett’s Boeing plant will be cut.

“Hundreds more automobiles will be put back on I-5 and U.S. 2 in the morning and afternoon and the parking lots at the Boeing Everett Plant will become even more congested than they already are,” said Boeing employee David Clay, who catches the 277 in Snohomish.

For Sunday service, the agency plans to post a list of alternatives on its Web site, spokesman Tom Pearce said. These include rides provided by social service organizations such as Medicaid Transportation, Catholic Community Services and the Transportation Assistance Program operated by Senior Services of Snohomish County.

Sunday and holiday service will be the first to be restored when funds are available, officials said.

Some riders wanted to know why Community Transit is making these cuts when it just started an entirely new program aimed at commuters, Swift, in which buses run frequently with fewer stops on Highway 99 between Everett and Shoreline.

Eleanor said Community Transit received state and federal grants for Swift that can be used only for that program. Still, Swift service on Sundays and holidays will be shut down along with all other service on those days.

Community Transit’s drivers union, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1576, opposes the cuts, said union president Kathleen Custer, a dispatcher at the agency.

The union is concerned about the effects of cuts on Sunday riders and about layoffs among drivers, she said.

It’s not certain yet, but the plan for cuts presumes 55 layoffs among Community Transit’s 375 drivers, Eleanor said.

Rick Jurkovic, the union’s vice president, said at the Marysville meeting he was disappointed that no alternative plans were developed.

“We didn’t have enough staff and enough time to put together choices,” Eleanor said.

She said the reaction alone shows that the proposed cuts wouldn’t unfairly affect one group or another.

“We’re not just making one group mad — we’re making everybody mad,” she said.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.