So, it’s official… There will be service cuts to METRO light rail as of July 26th 2010. What we have known for a long time is now reality. The long rumored service cuts to light rail are coming but the result doesn’t sound like it will be too bad for the majority of riders. According to METRO, the changes will be as follows:
• Presently, METRO runs 10-minute peak service from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Come July 26, METRO will run every 12 minutes from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; all other times of the weekday will remain at 20-minute service. METRO’s total service hours and weekend schedule will not be impacted.
• METRO will also now consider five additional holidays – Christmas Eve, day after Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day and Veterans Day – as transit holidays whereby trains will run a Sunday schedule, which is every 20 minutes.
The change from 10 to 12 minutes probably isn’t going to kill anyone and the added holiday time changes sound reasonable. The business community obviously had some pull in keeping Night Rail hours in effect which should please one or two people that we know. 🙂
The changes to light rail service look to be a combination of several different ideas that have been thrown around in public meetings for months. The falling sales tax revenue is said to be the culprit and many at METRO sound like they are bummed to have to make any cuts, at all. My guess is that there will be more service changes in the future that could be good or bad. Heck, the sales taxes should rebound one of these days and they can probably figure out how to use some of the advertising cash in the future, right?
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