Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is proposing more cuts to the area’s bus system, right on the heels of earlier cuts.
County officials recently agreed to cut or reduce routes with the lowest ridership. Those changes to Ride-On, the county’s bus system, are set to go into effect April 5.
Now Leggett is proposing further cuts to help offset the county’s forecast budget deficit of $450 million.
“I am committed to providing transit services to county residents, and the best way to continue to do so is to ensure that every dollar we spend moves the most people in the most cost-effective way possible,” Leggett said.
The county is proposing eliminating weekday bus service on five routes, cutting Saturday service on five other routes, and reducing weekend or evening service on about a dozen routes.
The cuts “are pretty much spread around the county,” said Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield. “We’re trying to be as watchful of ridership and need as possible.”
The county expects to save $1 million a year on the first round of cuts, and would save $2.8 million with the current round of proposed cuts, Lacefield said. But he added that the county’s proposed cuts represented the “maximum” of what Leggett was willing to eliminate from the bus schedules.
Public transportation advocates said the county was being shortsighted, and the proposed cuts likely would cause significant hardship to many county residents.
“The fact is, they are cutting into meat and bone,” said Ben Ross, president of the Action Committee for Transit. “These are real serious cuts.”
Councilwoman Nancy Floreen, chairwoman of the county’s transportation and environment committee, said the county heavily subsidizes public transportation, and cutting bus services ”goes against all our policies.”
But she said the county’s dire financial situation may force the County Council to approve cutting more bus services.
“It’s a terrible choice to have to make but we’re going to have to be making a lot of those terrible choices this spring,” Floreen said.
