Campus public transportation will significantly change as Lane Transit District eliminates the Breeze line that connects campus to the Eugene Station and Valley River Center, starting Sunday, June 13, to coincide with the start of the University’s summer.
LTD will eliminate or cut back 16 bus routes, three of which have stops at the University, as the first of a four-phase process to compensate for budget shortfalls. Other routes being eliminated include 3x River Road Station, 8x Thurston Station and 60 Cal Young. Further changes to LTD service will be made as part of three phases in September 2010, January 2011 and June 2011.
LTD spokesperson Andy Vobora said the Lane County’s board of transportation considered the availability of other routes as a major criterion for cutting bus lines.
“The big consideration was whether or not there were other alternatives available for riders so they could substitute routes,” Vobora said. “In the case of the Breeze, you have service that connects downtown and the University, but with the EMX service and the number 28 route, which is actually being expanded from a five-day-a-week to a seven-day-a-week, we can still provide that connection from the University.”
In addition to eliminated and reduced routes, four other routes will not operate during the summer, starting June 13, but will resume on September 20: 76 UO/Westmoreland, 78 UO/Oak Patch, 79x UO/Kinsrow.
LTD announced plans to drop 10 routes and alter another 28 by the end of the process  in response to the $6.5 million budget shortfall it faces over the next two years.
Vobora said other criteria for the cuts included the size of ridership and population demographics around Lane County.
Several student riders wanted to know more about Lane County public transportation reductions.
University freshmen Max Dubovoy and Maveny Zuniga said they hadn’t heard about the LTD’s reduction in service, but the two agreed buses were an important part of their plans to live in Eugene.
“Oh damn. See, I didn’t know about that,” Dubovoy said. “We live like two blocks down, but next year I was planning on actually using the bus because I’d be living off campus pretty far. I’m anxious to see which ones will be canceled.”
“I think I should it be made a little more known; I totally didn’t know about it,” Zuniga said.
“Eugene is the second biggest city in Oregon, and yet they are gonna do that … It’s probably gonna affect a lot of people”
The cutback in service represents the second biggest in LTD history, the first being 30 percent of the total services in the 1980s. Vobora said there was no guarantee LTD’s shrinking ability to provide services will stop with this year’s cuts. He explained that, in Oregon, the state finances a very small portion of public transit, and Oregon’s already precarious budget could mean even less for LTD.
“We really anticipate what little money we did get from the state will be gone (next year) as they struggle with their own budget issues,” he said. “I think we’ll just have to see in a year how the 2012 year looks like. Hopefully our estimates have been conservative and we don’t have to make more cuts.”
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