Residents and officials seek reforms to fund local public transportation

By Patrick Donges

Pittsfield, MA – Wednesday afternoon marked the last of three public hearings held by the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, or BRTA, on proposed service changes to several of their daily bus routes.

About 20 people showed up at BRTA headquarters in Pittsfield, making up for a total turnout of three people at the first two meetings held in Stockbridge and North Adams. BRTA general manager Mark McClanan described the proposed cuts.

"These efficiencies will impact existing routes by adjusting their runs to reflect the times of higher utilization by the public. We are looking to minimize impact on individuals by adjusting routes with route deviation where possible. Our goal is to streamline our times or our services, not so much to change service."

According to McClanan, a ridership study conducted by the agency on each of their routes determined that most routes see a spike in ridership in the afternoon hours.

"Quite a few of them kind of look like the bell curve. Started off in the morning with one maybe two people and got up fairly high in the afternoon and then that last trip of the day dropped off again."

Officials say the efficiencies are necessary due to cuts in funding received by the authority from both the state and federal government; BRTA administrator Gary Shepard.

"We'll probably take at least over $100,000 cut from the state. Even if we didn't take the cut and we were level funded that would be about three years straight in a row of level funding, when your fixed costs are going up dramatically."

"On the federal level we're being told to anticipate anywhere from up to 30 percent cuts. It could translate to over $2 million dollars."

That's an estimated $2.1 million from the authority's annual budget of about $4.25 million; nearly a 50 percent cut.

Residents who attended Wednesday's meeting expressed frustration and outrage over the proposed service changes.

Pittsfield resident Colette Dalton said she already hears complaints from her boss for having to leave work early to catch the last bus home. With that final ride slated for elimination on her route, she said she isn't sure if her employer will tolerate another work hour lost.

"Ending the West Pittsfield run at 4 p.m. is absolutely insane. I'm losing over $100 a week as it is because I depend on public transportation. If you cut that back now; I'm not sure that I'll have a job if I go to my employer and say, I need to leave work another hour early.'"

Don Coleman, assistant director with Berkshire Vocational Services, spoke to one route change scheduled for next week.

The "Lenox Resort Loop," which made stops in downtown Lenox, Tanglewood, Canyon Ranch and Kripalu, will be eliminated beginning July 5.

The route had had been subsidized for the past year with grant funding; Coleman said some of his organization's clients rely on that bus for employment.

"This is not going to affect peoples' hours, it will affect peoples' jobs; they will be losing their jobs because they will not be able to get to work."

Shepard told attendees that he wants to expand service, but cannot without the funding or the political support for funding reform.

"How we are treated out here is different than how we are treated in Boston, and how we are funded."

Stressing that none of the proposed route changes had been approved prior to the hearings, Shepard said that unlike regional public transit authorities, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, or MBTA, Boston's transit system, has a dedicated source of funding from a portion of state sales tax.

He illustrated his point about the inequality of funding the authorities with a story about three hypothetical sisters, one in Pittsfield and one in Springfield who decide to visit the third in Boston.

"While they're in Boston, they're riding around on public transit at 8 p.m. on a Sunday night, and the sister from Springfield says to the sister from Pittsfield, If I had that public transit opportunity in Springfield at 8 p.m. on a Sunday night I could've had that job.' That's environmental justice."

He went on to say that the county's state legislators and Congressman John Olver have all been supportive of expanding transit, but that it could not happen without the funding in place.

Responding to a request for comment via Twitter, state Senator Benjamin Downing called the funding differences a, "long standing inequity," and called for regional transit authorities to also be placed on a "forward funding" plan.

Downing was mentioned at the hearing as one member of a coalition of lawmakers working towards transit funding reform.