Lane Transit District will seek less funding from the ASUO to maintain routes to the Kinsrow area than was previously reported.
Andy Vobora, LTD director of marketing and communications, told the Emerald on Wednesday that LTD will likely need only $50,000 to $60,000 to increase service to the area, not the $170,875 the Emerald reported Tuesday.
In the face of drastic cuts, LTD is planning major cuts to services.
The increased student funding would help pay for 17 additional routes to the Kinsrow area, where thousands of students live in Ducks Village, Stadium Park and Chase Village Apartments. Those routes would be added to the eight routes LTD has already proposed, adding more trips on the 79x route to cope with the proposed deletion of the 79 route next year. If the ASUO chooses to fund the additional routes to the 79x, the total number of trips added to the route would equal 25.
The eight additions to the 79x that LTD has proposed are independent of routes it will be asking the ASUO to help fund, Vobora said.
The $170,875 figure that was reported on Tuesday is what it currently costs LTD to run the 79x. Traditionally, routes like the 79x are paid for by the group that needs the route; however, LTD absorbed the cost of the 79x in the past.
Route 75x, which Sacred Heart Medical Center paid for, was intended to be an example of how direct service routes are traditionally funded.
LTD has had to propose major cuts to next year’s service in order to cope with rising gas prices, decreased payroll tax funding, and increased demand for paratransit services.
[email protected]