On the same day New York City announces its “disasterous for commuters” transit cuts, TriMet released its final proposed MAX and bus cuts. The big difference between the final cuts and the ones proposed a month ago is that TriMet is only completely axing five bus lines instead of twelve but also MAX service will change, with trains running every half hour at low service times (early mornings and late evenings ) instead of every 15 minutes. Confidential to Zoobombers: this will leave you waiting in the cold on the MAX platform a little longer. Wear an extra layer of sequined Spandex.
A full list of the proposed cuts is at the TriMet site, check it out for yourself.
While New York is killing two subway lines and raising regular subway fares by 50 cents to help plug a $1.2 billion budget gap, TriMet is facing a $13.5 million budget shortfall. That budget hole is thanks in part to a $2.6 million lost on a bad diesel contract but according to TriMet, 55 percent of the shortfall is due to a decrease in employer tax revenues (because of higher unemployment).
One of the differences between NYC and PDX, though, is that New York’s ridership declined this year apparently because the newly unemployed no longer need to commute (ack!). TriMet’s ridership has set record highs since June and, as of February, was still higher than any year before.
High ridership is probably one of the reasons TriMet received over 1,500 public comments about the service cutbacks. More public hearings are coming up in April – info below the cut.
Public comments on this new proposal are accepted through 5 p.m. Friday, April 10, 2009.
Email: comments@trimet.org
Comment line: 503-962-5806
Plus three public hearings:
Monday, April 6, 2009 — 4-7 p.m.
Wilson High School Cafeteria
1151 SW Vermont in Portland
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 — 4-7 p.m.
Portland Building Auditorium, Second Floor
1120 SW 5th Avenue
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 — 4-7 p.m.
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office
Public Safety Training Center
12700 SE 82nd Avenue in Clackamas
None of this impacts me, or, I imagine, anyone in any particularly harsh manner.
Arrive half an hour earlier or later is the name of the game.
Less frequent does not equal slower.
let me curmudgeonize –
That’s OK, at least it costs more to ride.
And now doesn’t run anywhere near the time I need to ride it. And fails to get me close enough to my destination. And takes an hour longer than it does for me to drive.
So much for that north/south light rail I’ve been dreaming about all these years.
You mean Milwaukie? That’s unaffected by this. Ditto the transit mall/205 line.
Um yeah – it totally eliminates my route to work. The 33 runs…sorry RAN… from Gateway to downtown. Now it stops at Emmanuel. Which sucks.
At Emmanuel, get off, and get on the 4 or the 44. It won’t take any longer than turning around in the loop in Emmanuel before going downtown did in the first place.
Trimet Hearing, Tuesday April 7th, 4-7 pm, Portland Building 2nd floor (1120 SW 5th, downtown at 5th & Main). Bring a sign that says “NO CUTS!”
In these hard times ridership is up and we need all our public transit more than ever. We are coming together to demand no cuts to service (not just don’t cut my bus line, but don’t cut anybody’s bus line!) and no cuts to transit workers’ jobs.
From there we’d like to build towards a proactive coalition, as some other cities have, to make mass transit more affordable and workable for all.
Get involved in organizing: Next organizing meeting this Saturday March 28th, 1 pm, Chit Chat Cafe (1907 SW 6th Ave, downtown at 6th & Hall near PSU).
Or just turn out to the hearing: And whether you can get more involved or not, please plan if you can to bring a sign that says “NO CUTS!” and come out to the TriMet hearing on Tuesday April 7th, 4-7 pm, Portland Building 2nd floor (1120 SW 5th, downtown at 5th & Main).
http://mumia.justfree.com/trimet/
Line 55 is off the chopping block, but will have its frequency reduced from half-hourly to hourly during rush hour. The kids in my old neighborhood may still have an option of getting the Lincoln in the mornings!
No Cuts: I agree with you, but TriMet doesn’t have the money to continue to make all the bus lines run, so they have to cut something. Rather than tell TriMet not to cut, why don’t we lobby congress to bail out transit operations, (since almost every transit agency in the country is making cuts.) While it would be hard to do, (a lot of congress is made up of people from rural areas,) it would actually prevent service cuts, unlike bringing signs to a hearing in Portland…
Great I use Trimet 99% of the time and for work. Bought a house in NoPo when the
Yellow was confirmed. Now if I stay downtown for a evening I have to wait 30 MINUTES !
So much for my $75 2 zone pass. I would pay more even would agree to getting rid of
the stupid zones and pay the diff. Right now I’m in Toronto Canada. Their MAX is a pair
of subways N/S and E/W. 6 AM to 1:30 AM worse and I mean the WORSE is every 5 minutes
during the weekday there can be a train every 2 minutes. After 1:30 AM there are a 20 bus
lines to like 5:30 AM … Oh yea in the core there are trollys sometimes with the next one hanging on the ass of the one if front of it.
-pete rant off ..