Cash-strappped RTC slashes six bus routes

Friday, Dec. 13, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

The RTC eliminated these bus routes Thursday:

Downtown Las Vegas to Nellis Boulevard along Las Vegas Boulevard.

Lone Mountain Road to downtown along Rancho Drive.

Serving the Strip.

Buffalo Drive to downtown along Oakey Boulevard.

Tenaya Way to Las Vegas Boulevard along Craig Road.

A circular route serving Summerlin.

The Regional Transportation Commission board eliminated six bus routes Thursday, part of a sweeping overhaul that RTC officials say is needed to balance the agency's budget.

The board also voted to reduce weekend runs on seven routes and approved the shortening of two night routes. The cuts were the latest in several rounds of service reductions the RTC has made over the last year to try to eliminate a $2.8 million deficit.

But RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said the agency also is adding one federally funded route, extending some routes and increasing the frequency of buses on others in an effort to mitigate the impact on riders. The changes cumulatively affect the entire Las Vegas Valley.

"We have done the best we could with the limited resources we have," Snow said.

With the exception of a route serving Craig Road, the routes that were cut are either among the least used in the 52-route system or duplicate other service that will continue, he said.

The Craig Road route was targeted because construction along the road makes the route unreliable, Snow said.

He promised that when additional revenue is available, many of the old routes will return. Voters in November said yes to an advisory question that called for $2.7 billion over the next two decades for mass transit and road improvements, but the tax package, which would draw mostly from a Clark County sales tax increase, still must pass the Legislature next spring.

The earliest that new revenue would be available for the system is September, Snow said.

A handful of people protested the service cuts.

Tiffany Hesser, client services director for Aid for AIDS of Nevada, said 1,300 HIV-positive and AIDS patients often used route 205, serving Oakey Boulevard.

"People with HIV/AIDS who are receiving services do need that route," she said.

Unhappy with the loss of route 219 along Craig Road was Rosann Sirody, a North Las Vegas resident who said many in her neighborhood off Ann Road will lose access to shopping.

"How are you going to get up and down Craig without the Craig bus?" Sirody asked the board.

Toby McCracken, a Henderson resident, said the RTC could have avoided the need for cuts if the agency had charged ATC, the contracted bus management company, fees for late or missed service during last summer's three-month bus strike. The RTC waived the fees in return for one-month free bus passes for regular riders.

McCracken lives along Green Valley Parkway and said he was unhappy that the frequency of buses he uses will be reduced. The change could mean a typical trip with one connection will take hours more, he said.

And the RTC never held a hearing on the latest round of bus-route changes in Henderson, he said. Jim Gibson, mayor of Henderson and an RTC board member, agreed that the RTC should have had a hearing in his town but voted in favor of the reduction anyway.

Jane Feldman, an activist with the local arm of the Sierra Club, said her organization had supported Question 10, the tax package that passed in November. She called for the agency to reverse the service cuts and expand the service as soon as possible.

"It's very disheartening on the heels of Question 10 ... (that) we have to have a major bus-route cut," Feldman said. "It's very difficult for the RTC to provide services to the sprawling edge of town."

Several board members expressed sympathy with the bus riders who would be affected by the reductions, but in the end only one of the eight board members voted against any of the cuts.

Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, RTC board chairman, agreed that the cuts were "painful and difficult," and Boulder City Councilman Bryan Nix said, "I can understand the concerns that these folks have."

North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck cast the lone opposing vote and it was only against the Craig Road change.

"I'm very concerned about cutting this route because this is our major corridor in North Las Vegas," Buck said. "I know revenue is a concern but public service also has to be a concern. I can't vote for this cut to Craig Road."