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More money, fewer rides for transit

Provider promises improvements

Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple Christopher Bradley of Cortland drives the Trumbull County Transit bus, owned and operated by Community Bus Services, on its rounds Thursday. CBS owner Terry Thomas said ridership was down in 2017 because the Federal Transit Administration said CBS couldn’t offer more rides than the transit board could pay for, so fewer people were able to schedule a ride when they needed it.

WARREN — Even though the Trumbull County Transit system received more local money in 2017, it gave about 12,500 fewer rides than it did in 2016, according to the system’s operational reports.

The system had $175,000 more in senior levy funds in 2017 than it did over the $425,000 it received in 2016, which it used to leverage federal and state grant dollars to support 48,395 rides in 2017, compared to 60,971 in 2016.

In exchange for the extra $175,000 appropriated in 2017, a memorandum of understanding with the Trumbull County Transit Board, which oversees the system operated by Community Bus Services, and the Trumbull County Senior Levy Advisory Council, requested 20,000 rides for seniors.

Seniors received 26,511 rides in 2016, but the ridership numbers fell short in 2017, with seniors getting 18,672 rides.

“I think part of the problem (in 2017) was that some riders that were able to get rides easily in 2016 and couldn’t in 2017 just dropped off the system,” said Mark Hess, who retired as transit administrator at the end of 2017, but is staying on through March as the board searches for his replacement.

Most years, Hess said, the system provides around 50,000 total rides, so the 2017 isn’t far off from average. But, in 2016, the bus service went $900,000 over budget — nearly a third of its $2 million budget — and increased capacity, Hess said. Riders grew accustomed to getting a ride at their requested time, but in 2017, after the Federal Transit Administration said the contractor couldn’t offer more rides than the transit board could pay for, the practice had to end, so fewer people were able to schedule a ride when they needed it.

The FTA calculates some of the money they turn over to the transit board based on ridership numbers.

Terry Thomas, owner of the bus service, said he thought the service would still hit the desired 20,000 senior trips.

“But the total went down because we couldn’t accept every request like we did in 2016,” Thomas said. “So that is bad news, but the good news is what we are doing now. A lot of the changes we are working on come from the questions and interest on the system and we are going to change the way we schedule trips to do better.”

Thomas said the system needs to work on increasing the number of trips per hour it provides, which is about one-and-a-half.

To do that and make other improvements to the service, Thomas said he has brought in a team to look at every aspect of operations.

“We are looking at things closer than we were before. We are changing expectations with our drivers and talking about how to make it a better experience for them and the passengers, to make it more efficient. We are stepping it up and will improve things in one way, shape or form,” Thomas said.

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