The federal stimulus bill will likely save Lane Transit District from cutting several bus routes in the fall, including two that serve the University, an LTD spokesperson told a student committee Thursday night.
LTD’s Andy Vobora said the money received from the federal government will preserve the 76 route, which connects the University with the Westmoreland housing area, and the Breeze route, which runs north from University Station to the Valley River Center mall.
However, the stimulus money will not stop LTD from cutting the 79 route, which connects the University with off-campus housing north of the Willamette River, Vobora said.
Nick Schillaci, the ASUO’s transportation policy adviser, said the preservation of the routes would avert a major decrease in students’ access to campus, keeping transit wait times low and stops frequent.
“Those routes are direct links from the college to housing and entertainment for students,” Schillaci said.
Schillaci said he is not concerned by the loss of the 79 route.
“The only thing the 79 does is provide a direct link from Kinsrow housing to the Gateway Center,” Schillaci said. “Everything else on that route is pretty redundant.” The 79x route also runs between the University and the Kinsrow area, but does not connect to Gateway.
In total, Vobora said LTD will receive nearly $6.5 million of the $789-billion stimulus package Congress passed in February. Half of the money must pay for a construction project, likely to be repairs to a maintenance facility, but the rest will be used to preserve bus routes the district was planning to cut before the 2009-10 school year.
The route cuts were brought on by the worsening economy. As more people lost jobs, the amount of money raised through the payroll tax that funds LTD dwindled. Meanwhile, fuel prices also increased and with them the expense of operating the bus service rose.
LTD was anticipating cutting service by 14.5 percent, which would have amounted to 10 of its 42 routes, but it is now likely to lose only about 3 percent of its service, Vobora said.
ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz applauded the possibility of preserving the services.
“Throughout our negotiations with LTD, our primary concern has been working to maintain routes heavily used by students, and these fall into that category,” Dotters-Katz said.
Vobora said the long-term future of the 76 and Breeze is still in doubt, however. The LTD will not receive stimulus money next year, which means it will need to find the money to continue the routes elsewhere.
“We might be back at this time next year looking at some of the same cuts we are now,” Vobora said.
However, he said there is still hope for the routes.
“It depends a little bit on how far the economy continues to fall,” Vobora said. “If the economy hangs in there and doesn’t go too much further down and we get some of the big construction projects that are anticipated in the community, then we should be able to hang on.”
The amount the ASUO will have to pay for existing LTD services for the 2010-11 school year is also likely to increase by 5.6 percent, a smaller increase than in 2009-10.
LTD will decide what to do with the money it receives through the stimulus at a meeting Monday and announce its decision Tuesday. Though the destination of the money is still not decided, Vobora said he knows of no proposal for its use other than saving the routes.
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