Proving that the elitists on the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) are firmly committed to the destruction of public transportation services, the OCTA Board has decided to cut service hours again.
They simply do not understand that declining revenues are due to the lack of available service hours. Cutting only causes more people to choose other transit options. This serves to clog our freeways more and more. Penny wise, and pound foolish.
Here is the press statement from OCTA. Talk about your pigs and lipstick…
ORANGE – The Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors voted today to eliminate 150,000 annual hours of bus service in March through a combination of eliminating routes, reducing bus frequency, restructuring routes and reducing trips.
The service reductions are necessary to make up for major cuts in state funding and significant drops in sales tax revenue and fare revenue.The board action means that since September 2008, OCTA has reduced 20 percent of bus service – a total of 383,000 annual revenue vehicle hours – to bring service in line with available revenue. OCTA faces a more than $330 million shortfall over the next five years.
The plan will impact service on weekdays and weekends and includes:
∙      Weekday elimination of routes 62, 74, 75, 131, 147, 164 and 693
∙      Saturday elimination of routes 24, 76, 86, 172, 193 and 693
∙      Sunday elimination of routes 24, 51, 76, 82, 85, 172, 193 and 693
∙      Weekday reduced frequency on routes 25, 30, 35, 37, 50, 55, 64, 66, 72, 76 and 145
∙      Saturday and Sunday reduced frequency on routes 50, 55, 66 and 89
∙      Eliminates Night Owl service on routes 43, 50, 57 and 60 but maintains service until approximately 1 a.m. and resuming at approximately 4 a.m.
∙      Weekday elimination of midday service on route 21
∙      Weekday and weekend restructuring of routes 29, 43, 47, 53, 57, 59, 70 and 167
For detailed route information, please go to www.octa.net/marchchange.
I guess Supervisor John Moorlach is getting his way, afterall from his perspective we really do not need public transit options in Orange County.