By now, I hope most people are aware of the service changes coming this Monday for METRO light rail and bus service. Yes, we have talked about it before and METRO is doing what they can to get the word out but the reality is, many people don’t pay attention. If someone misses the big news, will they be caught off guard? Maybe. The reality is, the changes probably won’t be a huge loss for the majority of light rail riders. Unfortunately, there will be those that rely on public transportation that might find the service cuts a little harder to deal with.
On Monday morning, July 26th, the people at PIRG will be holding a news conference in Phoenix to highlight the concerns about the impact of service cuts on Valley residents. During this news conference, people will hear about tips for dealing with service cuts as well as concerns about the impact that these service cuts will have on Valley residents.
“At a time when service should be expanding, these service cuts come at a particularly painful time since more people rely on public transit for mobility during an economic downturn.” – Arizona PIRG
WHEN: Monday, July 26, 2010 at10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Civic Space Park, downtown Phoenix: Northwest corner of Central Avenue & Polk Street
For people that rely on bus and light rail service, these changes can have a drastic impact on their travel. Light rail and bus service changes can be found on METRO’s web site and they have provided a Transit Book Supplement to tell people about the changes to bus and light rail service. If you are a fan of Facebook, there is information there, as well.
For light rail riders, the trains will run every 12 minutes from 7:30am to 6:30pm on weekdays. ( other than some holidays ) Prior to 7:30am and after 6:30pm the trains run every 20 minutes.
Phoenix Civic Space Park.
I am not worried. It will just take some planning to work around any cuts that might affect me.. It’s really not that big of a deal as long as the light rail stays alive 🙂
Smart how they did this. Cutting hours would have turned off lots of people. Hopefully revenues will increase soon!
The revenue issue is always an interesting topic. Now that they are selling advertising, one might think that “should” help keep away any future cuts?
Raise gas taxes, at least in the county that has the light rail.
Good point about the advertising. What is that paying for?
I think the revenue goes towards their general budget. They said it was “too early” to tell how much revenue they would generate from ad sales. It’s one of those funny little things they seem to get all defensive about when asked. 🙂
Unfortunately, in Arizona gas taxes can’t fund transit – our state Constitution says that state gas tax monies can only be spent on roads.
I think that changing the state Constitution to allow gas tax money to be spent on transit (including light rail) is a good idea, since everyone benefits from transit, not just the people who use it. Changing the Constitution would require an initiative passed by voters, which is no small task…but an idea worth exploring in my opinion!
Thanks for the info Serena!
It was nice meeting you at the PIRG meeting this week! 🙂