Phoenix Valley Metro Bus route and schedule changes will take effect as early as July 23 to save city taxpayers’ money.
The Phoenix Public Transportation Department is asking the city’s residents to comment on a list of proposed changes, which include restructuring Express service routes, decreasing Friday schedules and making 20 end-of-route segments more efficient, according to an April 3rd City of Phoenix news release.
Public meetings for opinion and input began April 3 and will continue until April 19 at Phoenix community centers. A public hearing will also take place Thursday with the Citizens Transit Commission, a group created to ensure community input on transit proposals funded through a transit program.
Voters approved the Transit 2000 program in 2000 to create a 0.5 percent city sales tax to fund the Phoenix Public Transportation Department.
The money the department will save from altering bus routes could go into the tax program, which supports 66 percent of bus services and 33 percent of Valley Metro Light Rail services, Phoenix Public Transit spokesman Matthew Heil said.
Funding is expected to last until 2020, prompting the department to propose the service changes to save money and meet their long-term financial needs.
“We’re trying to take action soon so that we can be responsible with those funds and make sure those people have continued service,” Heil said.
The changes are a financial necessity, he said.
“If we wait until too much later to make these changes, it will have to be more steep and more drastic,” Heil said.
Depending on the service changes, Phoenix could save up to $3 million dollars annually, according to the news release.
Heil said in order to save money, routes that saw less ridership than others were chosen to be cut back or rerouted.
“If we have to find savings, then we want to focus on the areas with less ridership,” Heil said. “We need to streamline those end segments.”
Phoenix Sustainability Department spokeswoman Stephanie Romero said the financial stability of public transportation is also important for the environmental quality of the city.
“We’ve had public transit for a long time,” she said. “And it plays an important part in trip reduction efforts by the county to address air quality.”
Meeting attendees have been optimistic, but some are concerned about possible effects, Heil said.
Tempe resident Don Pence has lived in the Valley for 62 years, and in Phoenix for the first 40. He said any loss to bus services could hurt people trying to go to school or make a living.
“Any reduction on bus services is detrimental to citizens,” Pence said.
Reach the reporter at sraymund@asu.edu
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