One year ago, during Metro's bi-annual revision of its bus schedule, Metro released a schedule of proposed cuts, that was universally panned by pretty much every transit advocate in town, from Bart Reed, to Kymberleigh Richards to Damien Goodmon to the Bus Rider's Union. After a nearly universal bad reception, Mayor and Board-Chair-In-Waiting cut a political deal to delay the cuts.
In the past year, the landscape has changed for Metro and other transit agencies. Measure R has passed, with 20% of the budget going to transit operating funds, but the state is promising to cut transit funds and there is little hope that the federal government is going to step in and pick up the slack. In this landscape, Metro has released it's proposed bus service changes that would go into effect in June.
For a full list of the changes, please you can see Metro's press release or for an easier read check out MetroRider's breakdown of the changes. Personally, I'm not thrilled that the 714, the only Rapid Line I ever use, that runs down Beverly is going to be replaced with increased local service on the 14 along the same route.
While most of the proposed changes are cuts in service in some form or another, the public outcry isn't nearly as loud as it was last year at this time. The cuts were announced in a press release last week, and so far the only public comments available are from the Southern California Transit Advocates who offer a mixed bag of support and opposition. The Bus Rider's Union website hasn't been updated since the fall election and thus far the Transit Coalition hasn't released those awesome colored maps they did last year.
Nevertheless, the first public hearing will be held next week on February 4th at the San Fernando Valley Service Sector meeting. A full schedule of service sector meetings can be found on Metro's website, but this year they won't be holding a meeting at Metro H.Q. to address all the proposed changes at once.
If you can't make any of the hearings, you can email comments to Metro at “Service Changes June ‘09” to customerrelations@metro.net or fax to: 213.922.6988. Per usual, I'll send an email with the comments from our section below along to Metro before the February 14 deadline,
Photo: Biofriendly/Flickr
