End of C-Tran leaves many without rides

By Mike Morris and John Spink

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As Clayton County's C-Tran buses made their last morning rounds on Wednesday, many riders were still wondering how they would get to work without the service.

Constance Glenn of Hampton said she has been riding C-Tran buses to and from her job at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for two years.

"I don't know how I'm going to get to work," Glenn said.

She told the AJC that she had tried talking to friends about catching a ride, "but nobody has a car, so I'm out of luck."

"I'm going to be out of a job," Glenn said. "It makes me very angry."

Tyrone Maze, who lives in Jonesboro, has been riding C-Tran for about three years.

"I use it to go to work, to go downtown and to doctor's appointments."

Maze was boarding the Route 504 bus from the county's Justice Center to the airport for the last time at 7:30 Wednesday morning.

"It's really going to throw [my routine] off," Maze said.

Maze called C-Tran "the last resort some people have, including myself. It's really going to take a toll on the people in this area."

High school senior Antionette Mellerson, 18, has been riding C-Tran off and on for a couple of years, and daily for about three months.

She said her mother will "be getting up early in the morning and taking me to school. I don't want her to do that, but we have no other choice."

Mellerson said she knows people who "are actually going out to buy cars with no insurance and no driver's license."

"It interferes with your everyday life when you don't have transportation," she said.

Nesly Gabriel has been driving a bus for C-Tran for six years.

"Today's the last day, and it's a sad day for the residents of Clayton County," Gabriel said. "A lot of people depend on this bus."

As for Gabriel's future, "I'm going to be unemployed like everybody else," he said. "I'll probably go back to school."

Glenn blamed the Clayton County Commission for not finding funds to keep the bus service running.

"They're putting a lot of people out of a job, and they don’t care," she said. "They just don't act like they care."