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By Ricardo Lopez
VIRGINIA BEACH
After Angie Skinner's car broke down a few weeks ago, she had no choice but to ride the bus. The Beach native lives in the Hilltop neighborhood and attends culinary classes at Tidewater Community College in downtown Norfolk.
In these few weeks, Skinner, 40, has become somewhat of an expert on local bus routes. Her daily commute on Route 20, which runs from the Oceanfront to downtown Norfolk along Virginia Beach Boulevard, can take up to two hours.
"The bus service is good, but anything outside the 20 needs improvement," she said.
However, that sort of expansion isn't coming any time soon, even though Virginia Beach 's contribution to Hampton Roads Transit has increased for the upcoming fiscal year, bringing the total to $3.7 million - a change of $190,000 over the previous year. State support and fare box revenues have dropped, forcing the city to pay more money to keep existing routes and fund union contract pay raises.
Though ridership is up on some Virginia Beach routes, service expansion hinges on financial support from the city, said Tom Holden, spokesman for HRT. Route 20, for example, is one of the region's three busiest routes, with monthly weekday ridership in April at 89,250, up 21 percent from a year earlier.
The HRT budget is funded by the state, federal and municipal governments, along with fare revenue, Holden said. "A drop in any of these categories causes HRT and most state agencies to draw back on their services."
Skinner carefully plans her connections because she knows some routes stop running after 6 or 7 p.m.
On a recent ride around Virginia Beach, one man just missed his connection - the last of the night - leaving from Pacific Avenue and 19th Street after stepping off a late bus, leaving him stranded.
Gripes about late buses and infrequent service are common, and they echo the sentiments of many Virginia Beach riders: Routes need improvement.
"HRT is continually proposing improvements for services," Holden said. "We think service could be more frequent. More service would equal more customers, but there isn't the money right now."
Stephen McClease, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1177 said negotiations for new driver pay raises have not taken place. The raises may not even occur because of the current economic climate, he said. A previously negotiated pay increase will take effect in October.
The transit union and HRT have a three-year contract expiring in June 2010. Negotiations will likely begin in the fall, McClease said.
Ricardo Lopez, (757) 222-5125, ricardo.lopez@pilotonline.com
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Claims that Federal/State transit funds don't reduce $ for roads
The claim that Federal and State funds used to subsize and construct mass transit/LRT don't reduce funds to improve roads are fasle! The money used to fund LRT comes from GAS TAXES paid at the federal and State levels! Portions of the GAS TAXES are diverted away from funding road improvements to be spent on mass transit, bike paths, and other non-road improvements. More funds would be available if GAS TAXES collected to improve roads were not diverted to fund non-road spending. Claims that LRT in Tidewater reduce traffic congestion by taking cars off the road are misleading. LRT is all about more development, not reducing exisiting traffic congestion.
Still awaiting approval...
Posted a comment at 10:40 this morning and now it is almost 5pm. I'm beginning to suspect the VP does this just to delay comments being posted and then less people will read it. Now, had I been commenting on something the VP favors...I doubt there would be such a delay. Will this be posted?? Don't know. Per the VP..."Our take-down policy:
We have the right (but not the obligation) to review any content that you have submitted to our sites, and to reject, delete, disable, or remove any content that we determine, in our sole discretion, (a) does not comply with these Posting Guidelines; (b) might violate any law, infringe upon any rights of third parties, or subject us to liability for any reason; (c) might adversely affect our public image, reputation or goodwill; or (d) should be taken down for any other reason."
C+D means if they don't like what you have to say (regardless of whether it abides by their OWN rules)...they won't post it. Am I right VP?
Approval delay
We are unstaffed during the day on weekends, so comments are not looked at for approval until after 5 p.m or later those days. We have several hundred to go through, and we do it as quickly as we can. We approve comments in the order in which they are received, not based on content. David M. Putney, PilotOnline.com producer.
Thank you
Thank you for your response. I apologize as I did not know of this. I will remember this the next time I post on weekends. However, I'm afraid this problem isn't just limited to the weekends.
LATE & LAST BUSES/HRT 26 ROUTE
The best way to address the matter of late buses missing connection[s] with the final scheduled bus[es] of the day is to require the awaiting bus[es] to not depart until arrival of the connecting bus, which could include passengers who plan to transfer between these buses at the connecting point. For example, in Boston a number of bus routes serve various rapid transit stations, and buses of those routes which operate until 1A or so are required to await arrival of the last train until station departure. As well, this information is posted upon the public timetables. The same scenario could be implemented locally with little difficulty, although bus operational changes here come slowly. Lastly, if VB is seeking to reduce HRT operating costs, drop redundant 26 Route [save one bus] with the present peak-hour only service transferred to a spur of 29 Route.
But that's what they already do
They already wait for each other, the problem is that routes like the #15 (Military Hwy) and #20 (Va Beach Blvd) are the backbone of the system and if one is late - even by a few minutes - it becomes a cascade of failure throughout the whole system.
Right now, buses wait 3 minutes at lineups and are allowed an additional 2 minutes. The fundamental problem is that there's no buffer time built into the schedule. Since the article mentions it, I will use Hilltop. Right now, the 20 and 29 are told to arrive at :14 after and wait until :19 after. If you've ever been through hilltop (on a bus or in a car) you know what First Colonial looks like and that it can take several light cycles to get through Donna and Laskin. With that, you wonder why the bus is routinely late.
Understand?
"If you've ever been through hilltop (on a bus or in a car) you know what First Colonial looks like and that it can take several light cycles to get through Donna and Laskin."
Now maybe you can understand why we want our money first spent on improving the roads...and not some taxpayer funded train that will do nothing to ease the traffic.
Nah
1. Mass Transit and Roads money is firewalled from each other, so you can't use one for the other. Building light rail won't take a cent from roads.
2. A quality mass transit system would allow people to use transit rather than cars, taking cars off the road.
Sessom's choo choo train wil
Sessom's choo choo train wil not be any better. Raise the fares.
Why don't you be constructive
Why don't you post a constructive comment for once?
Oh wait, I forgot. All you do is complain without offering any real suggestions at all. Go back into your cave