Sunday service will continue for at least three months for riders on Howard Transit's green buses, staving off a slim portion of the $1.9 million in cuts and fare increases that took effect Thursday.
County Executive Ken Ulman said he was responding to a request from the county's Transportation Board, which heard pleas last month from riders who have no other way to get to work, stores or religious services on Sundays.
"We're going to continue it for three months and monitor it to see where things are," Ulman said. "I would like to keep it going."
Bus system officials said an average of 120 people per route ride the scheduled buses on Sundays.
Continuation of the Sunday service, which runs every two hours, would cost about $40,000, Ulman said, but no new cash was needed to make the change. Riders on scheduled routes will still be able to buy monthly and 10-day discount passes at the current rate.
"We were reasonably conservative" in estimating costs and revenues, Ulman said, and a refiguring of those estimates made it clear that a three-month trial for Sunday service would not break the bank. Three months should be enough time to see the effect the higher fares and other changes will have on the overall budget, he said.
"We're trying to do what we can in a tough situation," said Ulman, who has been a strong supporter of public transit. Ulman also has formed a commission to study ways to make the transit system better and more efficient.
The rising cost of bus system operations meant that the county would have to increase its contribution by 20 percent to provide the same level of service. Ulman said that was too expensive in a year when revenue is scarce and further state budget cuts are expected. The county is contributing the same amount, $7.7 million, for the bus service as last year.
But that means an increase in basic fares from $1.50 to $2 a ride, elimination of several little-used routes, including all service to River Hill Village, and a loss of discounted or free fares for disabled people using Para-transit, the service that picks up riders by appointment.
The commission has met twice, said Stephen Lafferty, the county planning department's special projects director. Members are gathering facts for a recommendation by Dec. 1 on whether to reorganize supervision of transit, which since 1996 has been under the Department of Planning and Zoning.
"The commission is to see if there are alternative ways of administering the bus transit system," Lafferty said.
It could, for example, be run as part of a regional authority, since the buses go into Anne Arundel County to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and to Arundel Mills mall, or perhaps it would be better as an independent agency within county government. Lafferty said that is what the commission is studying.
Sharonlee Vogel, chairwoman of the transportation board and also chair of the private Transportation Advocates group, celebrated the news that Sunday bus service would be extended.
"I think that is a great thing," she said. "The riders need to get out there and show [Sunday service] is needed – show their support for his action."
For Jan Hansen of Columbia, who says she is legally blind, has diabetes, degenerative joint disease and other ailments, and lives on $925 a month, the service cutbacks and changes mean that she will be paying $5 round-trip for rides that she now gets free with special passes.
"To me, this is just outrageous," said Hansen, 64, who lives in subsidized housing and gets help with medical care but said she can't afford the new fares. "I can't believe this county is allowing this to happen to the disabled and to seniors.
"I have a few passes left, but after that, I don't know what I'm going to be able to do."