By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     SAN DIEGO COUNTY — County residents who depend on public transit to shop or work received another hit recently, as Metropolitan Transit System officials cut more bus routes. 
     Bus service has gone from seven days a week to as low as one run two days per week. All weekend service has been cut completely.
     The cuts are another move in a long list of service alterations meant to cut spending in the agency.
     In January of this year, Back Country residents suffered massive service cuts to almost all of the MTS buses that travel in the mountains. Of the nine routes that used to serve Back Country communities, only four remain, on truncated schedules.
     “They’re going to eventually shut down the rural bus service altogether,” said Jerry Barber, member of the Rural Mountain Bus Board. “They’re trying their darnedest to do that.”
     Barber tried to work with MTS officials last year using his expertise on rural transit, but his efforts fell mostly on deaf ears.
     “MTS doesn’t know how to build a schedule that actually works,” Barber said. He believes that specific bus schedules could be adjusted to best serve the residents and run fewer buses. “There are some times when the buses run empty.”
    This was one of the main concerns for the transit agency as it sought a plan to scale back rural bus services in San Diego County, trimming less-used routes and raising fares to reduce operating losses that a July 2005 staff report said ranged up to $127 per round-trip passenger on some routes.
     At the time, however, Barber challenged that estimate, saying the figures were manipulated to achieve a pre-determined result.

Specific route changes
     Changes to rural bus operations combine routes 867, 891 and 892 into two routes between Borrego Springs and El Cajon, 891 and 892, operating Thursday and Friday respectively. Route 888, Jacumba to El Cajon, will operate one round trip on Monday and Friday only; Route 894, between Campo and El Cajon via Tecate, will no longer operate weekends and Route 889, Alpine to El Cajon, is eliminated.
     The adjustments are projected to save the transit agency more than $1 million a year, but riders in the Back Country, many of whom have been stranded by the severe cuts, are now forced to schedule appointments down the mountain within the limited schedule of service.
     For example, an elderly Back Country patient, en route to a doctor appointment will need to board the 888 bus originating in Jacumba at 9:40 a.m. (on Monday and Friday only), or the 894 from Cameron Corners at 6:12 a.m. After a two to two-and-a-half hour ride down the mountain, the patient is finally at the El Cajon Transit Center. From there, she can choose to board the Route 15 bus, which stops in front of Grossmont Hospital, or take the trolley, debark at the Grossmont Trolley Station, and then walk half a mile to the care center.
     This is only half the trip, however. At the end of the day, the rider must get back to the El Cajon station and board the 894 at either 4 or 5:10 p.m., the last buses that head back up the mountain. On Monday and Friday, the only returning 888 bus departs at 4:10 p.m. from El Cajon.
     Not only are riders subject to tough schedules and several connecting buses to get where they are going, residents traveling from the Back Country will be charged $10 one-way for the service.
     The system has established two rural zones — divided by a line running through Ramona, Alpine and Tecate — to set prices, with adult cash fares of $5 for travel within one zone — Borrego Springs to Ramona, for instance, or Tecate to El Cajon.
     Trips between zones will be $10.
     The higher charges are aimed at providing a fare box recovery ratio — the portion of operating costs paid by passengers — of 10 percent. 
     According to MTS, of the $1.2 million yearly spent on contracts for rural bus service, it drew only $102,000 in fares in 2004/05. This falls short of the 10 percent needed by only $18,000.
     Some board members have argued that such a small amount of money could be made up in other ways rather than having to cut service, however, on Oct. 13 last year the agency approved the chop.
     San Diego City Councilman Tony Young ultimately voted against it, the only one on the board to do so.
     “It's not fair,” Young explained after the meeting. “It's not always about the bottom line...This is a public service.”
     While transit in the city is experiencing a downturn, rural bus users are multiplying. But the net cost per passenger to operate the buses remains at about $22, compared to a system-wide average of $2, according to transit agency numbers.
     “These are figures that a publicly owned transit agency can't fathom,” said Poway Councilman and board member Robert Emery.
     Board Chairman Harry Mathis said the problems that the cuts will cause were unfortunate, but unavoidable. He and other transit officials pointed to district records that showed the routes in question have relatively few riders and high operating costs.
     “There are clearly people with special needs,” said Mathis. “And we recognize that.... (But) as a system, we can't really tailor-make it to meet individual needs.”
     MTS officials promised to continue adjusting the bus service as time goes on, when the agency is able to see how the new system is working.
     Conan Cheung, director of planning for the agency, called the overhaul “an ongoing deal” with riders, and board Chairman Harry Mathis said that “nothing is locked in concrete — we are a dynamic system.”

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