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MTS reduces weekday bus service
to Alpine and Back Country
By Joe Naiman
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — The Metropolitan Transit
System has reduced the weekday frequency of bus service between
the El Cajon Transit Center and Alpine to once every hour.
MTS Route 864, which runs between the El Cajon Transit
Center and Alpine, will still run from ECTC to East County
Square every 30 minutes during weekdays.
“Every other trip is going to end at East County
Square,” said Rob Schupp, the director of marketing and
communications for MTS. “Every other trip will continue the
whole trip.”
The state budget agreement included the elimination of
all state transit assistance funding for the next five years.
That created a $14 million deficit in the MTS budget.
The initial MTS proposal called for $10.75 million in
operational cutbacks, although the March 12 MTS board hearing
approved a $4.5 million service reduction. “We backed off
considerably from our first proposal,” Schupp said. “We worked
hard to ensure that people have alternatives.”
A hiring freeze and other internal cutbacks are
expected to save $1.5 million. Some of the money will also be
recovered by fare increases. Although the cost of an MTS day
pass will remain at $5 (and at $9 for two days, $12 for three
days, and $15 for four days), the cost of a monthly pass will
increase from $68 to $72 while a youth monthly pass will
increase from $34 to $36 and the senior/disabled monthly pass
will increase from $17 to $18. The single-trip fare for the four
MTS shuttle bus routes will increase from $1.00 to $2.50.
“We hope to generate more money through advertising and
real estate assets,” Schupp said.
The El Cajon Transit Center will be renovated this spring at the
expense of the concessionaire and will be turned into a
convenience store; the initial five-year agreement calls for
renovations in lieu of rent but saves MTS approximately $40,000
annually in renovation and maintenance costs.
The initial proposal would have eliminated seven entire
routes, while the approved version eliminates only Route 86,
which is to be replaced by the UCSD super loop. Some portions of
routes were discontinued and some weekend service on routes was
discontinued.
“The majority of these changes are to frequency in
non-peak hours,” Schupp said. “We’re impacting as few people as
possible.”
Route 864 between East County Square and Alpine was one
of two routes whose daytime frequency was reduced on weekdays;
the frequency of Route 709 between Southwestern College and Otay
Ranch Town Center will be cut from 15 to 30 minutes.
“We have a number of criteria, and passengers per
revenue mile is one of the criteria we look at,” Schupp said.
“It’s just a factor of how many people are on the bus and how
much it costs.”
Currently Route 864 runs every half hour between El
Cajon Transit Center and the Albertson’s shopping center in
Alpine, with every other trip ending at Albertson’s and service
to the Viejas Indian Reservation every hour. The round-trip time
between East County Square and Albertson’s is approximately 50
minutes. “We’re probably saving a bus,” Schupp said.
The change in frequency to Alpine will not affect the
earliest and latest departure and arrival times. The first
westbound 864 bus leaves Viejas at 4:58 a.m., reaches the Alpine
Creek shopping center at 5:09 a.m., and arrives at El Cajon
Transit Center at 5:55 a.m. The first eastbound bus leaves ECTC
at 5:35 a.m., arrives at Alpine Creek at 6:16 a.m., and ends the
route at Viejas at 6:28 a.m.
The last 864 bus out of Alpine leaves Viejas at 9:53
p.m. and Alpine Creek at 10:04 p.m. while arriving at ECTC at
10:55 p.m., while the last eastbound 864 bus leaves ECTC at
10:15 p.m. and arrives at Alpine Creek at 10:57 p.m. and at
Viejas at 11:08 p.m.
Route 864 runs hourly on Saturdays, Sundays, and
holidays; that will not be changed with the cutbacks.
Route 864 is the latest-running bus line in East
County. When the line was subsidized by the Viejas Indian
Reservation the final trip out of El Cajon left at 10:47 p.m.
and the line ran every half hour on weekends. Weekend frequency
was reduced in March 2007 when MTS restructured many of its
routes, and the portion west of Second Street in El Cajon was
re-routed from Broadway to Madison Street.
The final trip left El Cajon at 10:04 and the nighttime
trips left at four minutes after the hour, two minutes before
the arrival of the Green Line trolley from Old Town and San
Diego State University and six minutes before the arrival of the
Orange Line trolley from Downtown San Diego and La Mesa. In June
2008 the schedule was changed to coordinate the departure from
El Cajon with the arrival of the trolleys.
The weekend service changes will take effect June 14
with the weekday service changes taking effect June 15. The fare
increases, which are contingent upon San Diego Association of
Governments approval, will take effect July 1.
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