Without new funding, the Xpress commuter bus program will go broke and shut down in the next fiscal year, said Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Jannine Miller, the latest metro transit agency facing significant cutbacks or total collapse.
In the meantime, the regional commuter bus service is cutting its budget, raising all pass prices and hiking the fare for the longest routes.
GRTA Xpress's current budget crisis was built into its DNA, since it was established with short-term funds that were bound to run out. State officials hoped that the Legislature might eventually fill the shortfall. But the poor economy has produced an unexpected gap of two to four years until a 1 percent sales tax for transportation goes before the region's voters in 2012 and, they hope, starts delivering money. Even then, Miller said, there is no guarantee the region will include Xpress operations in the projects to be funded by the tax.
Although it has steadily grown since the first routes started in 2004 and is in the middle of a $120 million expansion largely funded by federal grants, Xpress has been operating on county and federal startup funds that are dwindling. The state has contributed a small amount of operating funds. GRTA is going hat-in-hand to the state, counties and riders, knowing that all of their budgets are pinched.
Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said that in better economic times it would have been easier to suggest more state general funds for Xpress. "Nobody expected what we've seen over the last three years."
Miller said it was smart to establish Xpress even with its funding structure. "We needed to try it out," she said.
GRTA inked the deals with counties for the Xpress bus program in 2002, said GRTA spokesman William Mecke. Counties provided startup funds for Xpress, and in exchange the state agreed to fund road projects within the counties. Perdue came into office in 2003, and GRTA gave the green light to starting up the bus lines in 2004.
Fares pay about $5 million of the annual $15 million operating budget.
Perdue is in charge of GRTA and has overseen Xpress's activation and expansion. Brantley noted that the first Xpress funding agreements were made before Perdue took office.
In October, the Xpress fare will rise from $3 to $4 for bus runs that are more than 25 miles long, such as the one to Cumming, according to GRTA. It's the first fare hike in the six-year history of Xpress, which carries perhaps 5,000 commuters Monday through Friday between suburbs and job centers throughout the Atlanta region, according to GRTA. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the area's 5 million residents and the 142,000 who ride MARTA each day, but GRTA officials say Xpress is an important weapon against congestion, especially at highway bottlenecks.
It's the possibility of total shutdown that dismays some riders. "I'm scared because it helps me," said Canice Ewelike, who rides from Cobb County. Five days a week he takes an Xpress bus from Austell to downtown Atlanta, where he works as an auditor. Like most Xpress passengers, he has a car but chooses Xpress to "defray the cost of parking downtown" as well as gas, he said.
Other concerned Xpress riders said the experience was incomparable -- more flexible than a vanpool or a carpool, but cheaper and more pleasant than a car, especially when it comes to navigating metro Atlanta's congestion.
"I can read, listen to music, take a nap," said Tonia Poole, who rides from Locust Grove to her job in downtown Atlanta as a government project manager.
Some Cobb and Gwinnett runs -- the ones that start with the number 1 -- would be insulated for the moment from the GRTA crisis, because they are funded by county budgets. Runs that start with the number 4, like Ewelike's 475, are funded by GRTA.
However, Gwinnett County has already made some transit cutbacks in the past year, and neither Cobb nor Gwinnett transit officials would rule out service reductions in the coming year.
GRTA's plan now is to spread the word about the funding problem to state legislators, county officials and customers, hoping to fill the gap of nearly $10 million a year over the next couple of years. Then in 2012, the Atlanta region will likely hold a referendum on a regional transportation tax, and GRTA officials hope the system's operations funding will be included in that.
But in the near future, Xpress is among many pinched transit services.
MARTA is cutting service more than 10 percent. Clayton County in March shuttered its entire local bus system.
Jack Hill, who chairs the state Senate appropriations committee, said it would be a tough job to find more money in the state budget for GRTA next year.
"It borders on impossible," Hill said. On the other hand, he said, it's all about the priorities of the Legislature and the new governor. "Could you find $10 million that just was important to one member? Probably not. But to 25 members and a governor? That might become something we had to do."
At least one of the Xpress cost-saving measures this year seems counterproductive, said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. GRTA plans to cancel the free transfer from MARTA, estimating that may gain GRTA another $200,000 for this year.
GRTA'S Xpress operations
GRTA's operating budget for the current fiscal year faces a shortfall of nearly $10 million. This is how the operations budget looked in the fiscal year just ended, when it had enough money for current services.
Ticket sales: $5 million
Federal funds: $7.3 million
County funds: $1.9 million
State funds: $813,000
Total: $15 million
Demographics
49 percent of Xpress riders have a household income of $75,000 or more
96 percent have at least one car
Source: GRTA
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