Midday bus service could be cut

When his lease is up, Ward Dudley will leave his Asten Circle home and relocate to Hoover. He said he has loved living in Homewood, but with the end of full Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) bus services approaching, Dudley and his guide dog will soon be unable to travel at will.

Dudley said he rides the BJCTA paratransit buses at least two or three times a week to run errands and go to the doctor’s office. On Jan. 31, however, the transit authority will reduce operations for Homewood’s Routes 39 and 42 to peak hours only. For those two routes, the MAX buses will soon stop running between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

While Route 14 will remain unaffected, the estimated 282 daily riders of 39 and 42 will only be able to catch the bus between approximately 6:15 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 7:20 p.m. BJCTA Executive Director Ann August said the cuts also affect midday service for Dudley and about 69 elderly and disabled Homewood residents who use the VIP paratransit minibuses along these routes. The routes cover downtown Homewood, Green Springs Highway, Lakeshore Parkway, Broadway Avenue and Brookwood Hospital, among other stops.

The Homewood City Council voted in September to reduce its BJCTA contribution to around $131,000 as part of the 2014-2015 budget. Prior to this reduction, Homewood received around 4,900 service hours from the BJCTA for an estimated 450 daily riders. The council decided to reduce the city’s contribution in part because Homewood has not had representation on the BJCTA board since 2012 and the service seemed underutilized by residents.

“It’s driving through our city, costing us money, frankly, and it’s not being used,” Ward 1 Place 2 Representative Britt Thames said during a Dec. 1 finance committee meeting on the subject.

August and other BJCTA employees have attended multiple finance committee meetings to make the case that Homewood should return to its original funding level and provide alternatives within the new budget. Communication issues between the city and BJCTA were a repeat topic throughout the meetings. 

Both Thames and Ward 2 Place 1 Representative Fred Hawkins said in a Dec. 8 meeting that they had almost never heard from BJCTA officials throughout their service on the council. The committee also brought up that the BJCTA increased Homewood’s rates by $47,000 in the 2013-2014 fiscal year without notice. After the council approved its reduced contribution in September, there was also confusion on both sides about billing and service changes.

“There’s not good communication going on for a non-represented municipality,” Ward 5 Place 2 Representative Peter Wright said. “That needs to change.”

After several of these meetings, August decided that the BJCTA would begin peak hours operation on Dec. 22 to “cut our losses.” The finance committee decided in a Dec. 15 specially called meeting to approve $8,000 of funding to keep full bus services running until Jan. 31. This buys the City Council additional time to consider the issue, especially as it affects paratransit services.

Paratransit services can only operate on fixed bus lines, so these services will also lapse in the middle of the day for Routes 39 and 42 beginning Jan. 31. However, many paratransit riders go shopping or to medical appointments in the middle of the day. These errands cannot always be completed during the peak hours windows, meaning paratransit riders will be forced to call a cab, rely on friends or wait until the buses resume afternoon service to get home. For riders who need specialized equipment, such as a wheelchair ramp, even those options may not be possible.

“Most of what I want to do is during the middle of the day,” said Gerald Yeager, a retiree living on Morris Boulevard. Yeager uses the paratransit service associated with Route 39 and feels like he will be imposing on friends to ask for rides.

The lack of midday paratransit also affects community programs for residents with disabilities, such as the Lakeshore Foundation and the Exceptional Foundation. Amy Rauworth, the director of policy and public affairs at the Lakeshore Foundation, said at least 50 of their members use paratransit every week to get to the foundation. This includes four members of the power soccer team, who need the buses to travel to their 2 p.m. practices. 

“It’s significant, and honestly, people with disabilities and older adults don’t have a lot of other options,” Rauworth said.

In response to this problem, the finance committee is considering contracting with ClasTran to replace the missing services for elderly and disabled riders. ClasTran would be cheaper for the city, but its standard one-way fare is $2, twice as much as the MAX buses. ClasTran may also need to add a new bus to accommodate these new midday riders. 

ClasTran funding is also under the BJCTA’s purview, so the board would have to approve this new service before it could take effect. Relationships between the City Council and the BJCTA are currently strained over this issue, and it is unknown whether the BJCTA board would approve the decision.

Even if it is approved, ClasTran may not be the ideal solution the council is hoping for. Both Yeager and Dudley said that ClasTran is less dependable than the BJCTA service. Cindy Jones, the president of the Birmingham chapter of the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, said she has seen many clients unable to keep jobs or make it to appointments on time because of ClasTran.

“MAX is much more reliable than ClasTran,” Jones said. “Why would you duplicate the service? Let’s improve VIP and let ClasTran handle outlying areas.”

Dudley recalled once being left at a bus stop with his guide dog when a ClasTran bus did not stop to pick him up.

“They are awful about picking people up. I’ve dealt with them before,” Dudley said. “Everyone I know that rides ClasTran hates them.”

Some riders of the regular routes are also unhappy with the prospect of reduced hours. Melanie Lewis, who lives near Route 39’s Broadway Avenue stops, said she uses the bus for field trips to Railroad Park and to go to Barons games with her husband and son.

“I’d be sad to lose Route 39,” Lewis said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to learn about mass transit and reducing pollution.”

Instead of cutting hours, Lewis said the city should try publicizing the service to increase ridership. She noted that Regions Field and McWane Science Center are both accessible through the buses, and reduced entry fees for bus riders could encourage their popularity.

“Downtown Birmingham is really taking off. I just hate to see Homewood distancing itself from that,” Lewis said.

The next finance committee meeting is Monday, Jan. 5. ClasTran is expected to present a proposal at this meeting, and the mayor is already authorized to enter a contract with ClasTran if the proposal is approved.