City seeks to end special bus service

Sam Morris

Las Vegas’ City Ride program serves about 100 seniors per week and others in the downtown area, at a cost of about $850,000 a year.

By Sam Skolnik (contact)

Monday, April 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.

For two decades Las Vegas has provided low-cost bus service throughout downtown geared toward seniors and low-income residents.

City Ride has never made any money. In fact, in recent years it has cost taxpayers about $850,000 annually.

Largely because of the need to cut costs as it faces a $150 million shortfall over the next five years, the city is in what appear to be end-stage discussions with the Regional Transportation Commission, which operates the valley’s Citizens Area Transit bus system, to drop the program as soon as July 1.

According to officials, the city and the RTC are discussing making adjustments to CAT routes and schedules to accommodate former City Ride passengers.

There’s another reason for the proposed switch, officials say: The two transit services’ routes and riders often overlap.

“The main reason for this is that there’s so much duplication of service,” said Dan Hyde, fleet transportation service manager for the city. “(The RTC) is in the bus business, and they’re very good at what they do.”

Talks between the agencies, ongoing for about nine months, began as a result of the city’s fundamental service review, a cost-saving effort by top city managers to streamline services and eliminate waste.

Currently, nine City Ride buses ply several routes. Two of those, called Fremont Street routes, carry passengers through several areas of downtown, including the Charleston Plaza and a nearby grocery store.

Some of the 30-passenger city buses also travel on routes that stop at more than a dozen senior housing complexes and take elderly riders to nearby grocery stores and pharmacies.

According to Hyde’s boss, city Transportation Supervisor Chris Jefferson, about 100 seniors per week use the heavily subsidized service.

City Ride bus rides cost adults 50 cents. For seniors 62 and older, and for children and teens, a ride costs a quarter.

According to both parties, the deal to end the city’s service hasn’t been finalized. The latest meeting took place Friday.

One of the unresolved issues is making sure every senior using the city’s buses would be provided transportation by the RTC if and when City Ride goes away.

“We are hopeful that through our discussions with the city, we will be able to accommodate most of their riders,” said RTC spokeswoman Tracy Bower. “That doesn’t mean that the routes will be exactly the same.”

The RTC, which serves all of Southern Nevada, not just the city, has several programs for senior riders, including Silver Star and the Flex Demand Response Service. Silver Star offers a service similar to the City Ride buses for seniors — it picks them up at their complexes and ferries them to nearby stores and back. The flex service picks up seniors near their homes, if they’re within a particular service area.

These RTC programs serve significantly more riders than the city’s. According to Bower, 45,657 riders used the specialized RTC services in 2008. Silver Star and flex service riders pay 50 cents per ride, double what the city charges its senior riders.

The fate of the Downtown Transportation Center, near City Hall, is also under discussion. Ultimately, the city plans for the bus hub to be dismantled. The RTC’s new transit center near Bonneville Avenue and First Street, close to the proposed new city hall, would become downtown’s main bus terminal.

Groundbreaking for the transit center will take place next month, with a scheduled opening in summer 2010, Bower said.

If the plan to end City Ride moves forward, six bus drivers will lose their jobs, Hyde said. The city will try to find other city jobs for them, he said.

Unlike CAT bus drivers, who are employees of Veolia Las Vegas, which operates the bus system under a contract with the RTC, City Ride drivers are government employees.

Tommy Ricketts, president of the Las Vegas City Employees’ Association, said he’s heard concerns about the proposed plan from two of the drivers, who are represented by his union.

Ricketts said he hoped the six drivers could transfer to other city posts, including street sweeping and dump truck driving jobs. He said he also wants the workers to keep their retirement benefits and current salaries.

“To find a home for six people shouldn’t be too hard,” he said.