CAT cuts likely, strike possible

Friday, Dec. 21, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission is considering service cuts throughout the Las Vegas Valley in response to dwindling ridership and tax subsidies, agency officials said Thursday.

Commission spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said the agency is considering -- but has not committed to -- cuts to 30 of the Citizens Area Transit system routes, mostly by cutting a few late-night or early-morning routes or by cutting the frequency of service on some routes. The system now has 49 routes.

The proposal has prompted howls of protest from the bus drivers' union, which picketed outside the downtown bus service station in Las Vegas Thursday morning.

The proposal, scheduled for discussion at the RTC's meeting on Jan. 10, would not eliminate any existing routes. The single biggest cut would come to the bus system's 301 route along the Las Vegas Strip, which would run every 10 minutes instead of every seven, its current schedule.

Most cuts would trim an hour or two of drivers' time from typical routes.

Over the course of the year, the reduction in service would shave more than 26,600 hours of driving time over the single route and more than 56,500 hours on all routes valleywide, RTC documents indicate.

The cuts would equal about 5 percent of the 1.2 million service hours the RTC provides.

Amalgamated Transit Union officials fear that any service cuts will hit their drivers in the wallet. About 20 drivers picketed the downtown bus service center Thursday morning.

Ingrid Reisman, RTC spokeswoman, said the service cuts, if they come, would happen in March.

"We're still in the process of putting this all together," she said. Drivers were asked their input in targeting the routes that had few riders.

The RTC also is considering adding three routes, Reisman said.

Frank Opdyke, president of local 1637, said cuts to service now don't make sense.

"We need leadership right now," he said. "This is not a time to reduce service. This is a time to expand it."

Odyke said the protests Thursday are not related to ongoing and sometimes acrimonious negotiations for a new contract between drivers and ATC, the Chicago-based transport company that manages the bus system for the RTC.

Opdyke said the protest was specifically directed at the RTC, which makes all decisions on what routes to run and how frequently.

But the RTC says it is caught in a bind due to economic recession and fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ridership is down by about 8 percent since the attacks. Worse, local sales taxes, which help fund the subsidized bus system, have fallen off, Reisman said.

Overall the system is about 4 percent short of what was budgeted, or $580,000 -- "money we thought we had," she said.

The average bus carries about 42 people per hour, according to the RTC. But some routes may carry just two people, Reisman said.

The changes to the system would save money while offering a minimal reduction in service for most people, Reisman said. The agency is still studying how much the service reduction will save, she said.