AT NE SANDY and 162nd, the bus stop for the #12 line is just a pole stuck in the mud, sandwiched between the busy road and a ditch.

TriMet announced last week that it will place a $125 million tax measure on the November ballot to fix this bus stop, along with 300 others. It also wants new buses to improve the system for the elderly and disabled.

But for critics, the notion that TriMet is begging for basic bus improvements is ironic: the public transit agency has poured hundreds of millions into its light-rail projects over the past decade, all while cutting bus service.

John Ostar, co-director of local environmental justice group Organizing People Activating Leaders (OPAL), squints in the hot sun as he points out the problems with a bus stop on SE 92nd and Foster. Just yards away is the spinning, solar-powered public art at the new Green Line Lents Town Center stop. But at the stop for the #14, #10, and #71 bus lines, there’s no bench, shelter, trashcan, or schedule.

“We feel that bus riders are under attack,” says Ostar. OPAL supports the tax measure, but hopes TriMet will keep an eye on equity. “Buses are the backbone of the system, particularly for low-income communities.”

Since 1998, TriMet has cut bus service by 3,940 hours and 16 lines. Light-rail service has doubled, with three new lines now open.

“What we’re doing is building the system. You need buses, you need trains,” responds TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch, who says that TriMet has planned to buy new buses since 1997, but economic conditions were never right. Though light rail is expensive to build, the feds have covered 60 percent of the recent projects.

The proposed TriMet measure is a property tax, which would collect about $25 a year on a $300,000 home and would re-approve a $125 million, 20-year regional tax approved in 1990.

TriMet would use most of the cash to replace aging buses, spending about $87.5 million to scrap at least 150 19-year-old buses. That would save TriMet a bundle—buses more than 15 years old cost $30,000 a year more to maintain than new ones.

But because of the nature of the bond, TriMet could not use the money to restore lost service, only to fix stops and purchase new buses.

Meanwhile, two more bus lines will be cut and a new five-cent fare hike takes effect September 1. OPAL will celebrate with a 5 pm protest at Portland City Hall.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

7 replies on “Bus-ted!”

  1. why are there no privately funded advertisements on the buses (inside)? every other city i have been to sells ad space to drive revenue.

  2. bus riders are not under attack; that’s just hyperbole. but Trimet has no clue about how to run a business. retailers don’t prosper by getting rid of product choices & raising prices: they cut prices, offer more & better, and work to improve what customers might get. TM has never understood this. they are right: we need buses & trains. but we need TM to figure out how to run a business, not run it into the ground.

  4. I heard that TriMet was planning to pay for the new Milwaukie light rail budget hole using future operation funds. Is that true? I’m pretty horrified if so. TriMet is already in the process of cutting service frequency past the point of being appealing to anyone who has any other option, so stealing yet more money from transit operations in the future sounds like a death sentence for buses.

  5. 12 year tri-met user. This is the first year I’ve cut back my use of the service. I won’t pay more for a service that has less options. I’m planning on biking/walking much more this next Sept ’10-Sept ’11.

  6. Light rail is too expensive to pencil and has ended up with cuts to bus services in many cities. I know in Los Angeles and San Francisco the NAACP filed suit against the providers for cutting bus service to poorer minority areas while expanding expensive light rail to more wealthy areas. Add to the mix the 10 year property tax exemptions given to wealthy property developers in order to get then to build on the MAX lines and you see what a mess the light rail has made out of Portland http://saveportland.com/ remember those property taxes that are not being paid would have helped fund schools and firemen. It looks like Mr Blumenauers friends get a lot of great exemptions and contracts and he gets great campaign donations. We get the shaft. http://dlopezforcongress.com/webpages/1-up…

  7. When will TriMet Quit taking away services with out making what service they do have more efficient.

    the ability to go short distances, quickly and efficiently, is heavily compromised when buses arrive at a stop within a 5min span. ie: the #12,#19.#20, starting from sandy and 15th to and thru the downtown area, arrive and depart almost on top of each other.

    Situation: I live at ne.couch and 8th and all i have to do is get to w.burnside and 6th at 7:30pm but all 3 buses are running within 5mins of each other, 7:04,7:09,7:10 with a 30min wait till the next set of 3 buses, and these times are not the only times that it happens, it happens thru-out the day, during peak hours and early ones, putting many people in a “waiting mode” and increasing the time to travel via the public system 3x

    Solution: Stagger the buses to arrive/depart every 10 mins then, we the inner city residence people, would be able to get around much easier, quicker and with out the worry of individual schedules …I would know that there is a bus going into town every 10 minutes…. I have experienced this problem more then once not only on this route but also on powell going into downtown and ended up walking thereby not buying a bus ticket and i am not the only one …..can you say MORE REVENUE

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