Transit decision-makers put cuts on the table

| Wednesday, March 26, 2008 6:48 PM PDT ∞

PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE ---- North County Transit District officials said Wednesday that eliminating far-flung bus routes and shuttle services in Fallbrook, Ramona and Encinitas may be one way to close a projected $3.5 million hole in the district's 2008-09 operating budget.

Transit authorities have blamed the budget shortfall on declining state and federal tax revenues, which make up about 70 percent of what the district spends annually to provide public transportation in North County. The district's 2007-08 operating budget is $85 million.

During a budget workshop Wednesday, transit board members discussed a range of ways they could close next year's funding gap, but made no decisions. Officials said those decisions will come in May, when the board adopts its final budget.

 Cuts to bus routes have increasingly stung some Breeze bus riders who depend on public transportation to reach jobs, stores and other crucial destinations.

Many who rely on the bus to get around have recently complained to the district about cutbacks to routes that took effect March 9, with the startup of the Sprinter light-rail line between Oceanside and Escondido.

The proposals discussed Wednesday included increasing all bus and train fares in the district by 50 cents.

Passengers now pay between $8 and $11 for a round trip on the Coaster commuter train that runs between Oceanside and San Diego, depending on the distance traveled. Folks who use Breeze buses or the Sprinter pay $4 for an all-day pass and $54 for a monthly pass.

Of all potential cuts put on the table, board members appeared most willing to permanently park the district's Fast And Simple Transportation shuttle service. The shuttle service now operates in Fallbrook and Ramona, and also provides a connection from Encinitas neighborhoods to that city's train platform at D Street and Vulcan Avenue.

Transit staff told the board that the shuttles will cost about $1.1 million to operate next year, but will only earn $84,783 in passenger fares. That means fares account for roughly 7 percent of the shuttle's operating costs.

By comparison, fares for the Coaster light-rail service cover nearly 40 percent of the train's operating costs; fares for the Breeze bus lines cover about 20 percent of its operating costs.

Though his city would lose the shuttle, Encinitas Councilman and transit board member Jerome Stocks said the transit district can't keep subsidizing the service at that rate.

"This is just out of control," Stocks said.

David Druker, a Del Mar councilman who represents his city on the board, agreed.

He said the shuttle only encourages regular transit riders to live in far-flung cities despite a countywide push to adopt "smart growth" policies that would increase housing density near main transit routes.

"We can't reward people for making decisions to live out in the middle of nowhere," Druker said.

Board members cringed when they heard that cutting Sunday bus service could save about $2.3 million, but would mean 800,000 fewer boardings for the transit system, which operates under the marketing slogan, "We Move People."

"No one is suggesting we do away with Sunday service," said transit planner Kurt Luhrsen. "This is just to show you kind of the order of magnitude that we are dealing with."

Directors shied away from the idea of reducing Sprinter service in any way and said they generally support increasing the frequency of weekend Sprinter service from every hour to every half hour, even though doing so will mean spending an extra $242,000 next year.

"It's a new service, and it needs to be established," Stocks said.

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10 comment(s)[-]Go to Top

Amy wrote on Mar 26, 2008 12:31 PM:So would it be more economical for NCTD to eliminate buses entirely and offer free taxi rides instead?

Way to go! wrote on Mar 26, 2008 2:36 PM:Raise the disabled/senior passes. Doesn't NCTD think???

George wrote on Mar 26, 2008 2:45 PM:Does anyone remember the prophecy from October of last year about the death spiral of increasing fares and decreasing ridership?

"It's no secret our transit bus system -- the Breeze --- is in
trouble. The increasing cost of operation has caused fare increases and
service cutbacks, forcing riders to choose alternate means of
transportation. This reduction in passengers leads to another round of
fare increases and service cutbacks, which causes yet another decline in
the number of riders. As more and more people are ejected from the
system, ticket prices continue to rise and even more routes are cut.

"In the private sector, this death spiral would ultimately end in
bankruptcy and put an end to the misery for all concerned. With
government, however, the misery spreads as more gas-tax money is
siphoned away from freeway construction in the name of "congestion
relief," which causes even more highway crowding. Ultimately the system
will have no buses and no passengers, but there will be a fully staffed
headquarters filled with highly paid administrators who schedule
hearings, attend meetings and issue periodic status reports."

Article: A Proposal To Save The Breeze http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/14/opinion/commentary/11_28_4810_13_07.txt

Derek wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:58 PM:They already have the bus-as-taxi system, it's called paratransit, and it's an order of magnitude (roughly 10x) more expensive than fixed route buses.

With the rising cost of gasoline, raising fares won't exactly push people back into their cars. It might convince them to start riding bicycles for shorter trips, which wouldn't be such a bad thing.

JZ Smith wrote on Mar 26, 2008 5:07 PM:I continue to be amazed that bureaucrats believe that when their product is selling poorly, that RAISING prices (fares) and REDUCING services (routes) won't bring in more ridership or revenue.

In the private sector, a business who's product isn't selling REDUCES prices and/or INCREASES services or product features! Why is this simple economic fact so hard for bureaucrats to understand?

And some people want bureaucrats in charge of our healthcare...

Maxwell wrote on Mar 26, 2008 5:21 PM:The Federal government mandates that the District supply twenty-five percent of the operating capital. This can only be achieved through the fare structure and advertising signs hanging on the buses. As it is, public transport is quite the bargain. It is only fair that the people riding buses, the Sprinter, and the Coaster pay some kind of realistic token cost to ride them. I saw someone once complain to a busdriver that the fare was too much, to which the driver asked the passenger what the price of gas was. The passenger replied he didn't give an 'expletive deleted' what the price was. This is the mindset of many who ride. They don't care. It is somebody else's responsibility (to take care of them).

George wrote on Mar 26, 2008 6:44 PM:Hi, Derek! Take a look at what Jason wrote in the blogs: "Way to support public transportation. Guess I'll just drive my car like everyone else :( " http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/03/24/news/top_stories/12_67_523_24_08.txt#08b668553abd989a60637b24a4c8b50a

George wrote on Mar 26, 2008 6:47 PM:Hi, Derek! How about this blog comment from "mom": "My son needs to commute to his classes in Oceanside from Ramona and the last bus to Ramona from the Escondido TC has been changed to a much earlier time. He has been stranded in Escondido on a few occassions now which also makes him out past his curfew." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/03/25/news/breaking/21_87_953_25_08.txt#3d8dc413251eaeaa53f87cb2f6297943

Senior Rider 2 wrote on Mar 27, 2008 8:54 AM:How about Del Mar Drucker find a large peice of property in downtown Del Mar and build a commune..Sandag's Policy of SMART GROWTH HAS ENABLED THE DEVELOPERS TO BUILD ANYTHING THEY WANT AND RUN THE BUS RIDERS OUT OF THE COASTAL AREAS. OR
THE TRANSIT BOARD CAN AWARD THE SPRINTER GROUP TO TAKE OVER THE SHUTTLES AS PLANNED WHEN THE NCTD SCHEDULER WAS HIRED BY THEM. CONGRATULATIONS STEFAN.

Jason wrote on Mar 27, 2008 12:10 PM:I don't think it's a good idea to increase Sprinter frequency on weekends; if anything they need to figure out how to get it to run later on weekdays. That being said--according to this article, the coaster is twice as efficient as buses when it comes to covering operating costs. That tells me that changes need to be made in the bus service. Specifically, any option that would increase the fuel efficiency of the bus operation should be examined. That could mean redesigning routes to avoid highly dense traffic areas, replacing some larger equipment with more fuel efficient stuff on lesser travelled routes, cutting service back to half-hour headways during slow times of the day (but maintaining 15 minute headways during peak hours), making end of service earlier, making start of service later, etc. I wonder how much fuel it would save to pull one bus off a route for 3 hours mid-day, or after 6?
Nobody wants these changes to be made, and it would certainly take adjustment and cooperation of the public to make it work. But the bottomline is that the sprinter shook things up and it'll take at least a year to getting the wrinkles ironed out. I think it's a good positive thing, but again, it'll take some public cooperation to get it figured out.

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