Wednesday, January 07, 2009

! - page forty-eight



(The story so far...)

2 comments:

Alexander Danner said...

Due to sagging economy, they *cut* bus routes? Shouldn't mass transit be one of the few industries that blooms during an economic downturn?

Tymmi said...

Well, understand that the "alt" commentary is totally off the cuff and not at all thought out.
That being said...

In Cleveland (the nearest metropolis) rates were just upped, and service cut, despite increased ridership and falling fuel costs.
Busses run on diesel and diesel didn't drop as much as the other commercial grades. City budgets have been hit hard, Ohio has HUGE deficits right now, and cash is short all over.
More people are riding the buses - record numbers in fact - but passenger fares only account for about 20% of transit cost. Service is subsidized by a county tax that people are (understandably) reticent to raise. There's not enough money coming into the system to sustain every single route so cuts are inevitable. Thus the single bus to cover the whole city here.

But, man, nobody's supposed to even read those ;)