TARTA will cut nearly half the bus service it provides to Toledo Public Schools under its student transportation contract early next month, but officials say the action will merely eliminate excess capacity.
Reducing bus-hours on school routes from 300 to 176 daily will lessen how much the district pays by nearly $9,000 each day, but relieves strain on the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority’s resources, General Manager James Gee told the TARTA board of trustees Thursday.
“We’re struggling daily with having enough drivers, having enough buses, and having enough mechanics” to keep everything running, Mr. Gee told the board.
“This is the first year we brought back transportation, and we knew we wanted to review it,” said Jim Gant, the school district’s chief business manager. “We’re pretty excited about being able to save the taxpayers some dollars.”
Operating the special routes is still pricey for the school district, however.
Average daily TPS student ridership ranged between 1,259 in August and 3,092 in December. Mr. Gee said the August and September numbers were low because of delays in issuing identification cards to students.
Even for the peak month and at the lower daily cost of $12,754 for the downsized service, that works out to more than $4 per ride. At a daily cost of $21,741 in effect during December, the school district paid TARTA about $7.03 per rider.
Mr. Gee later said the cuts would mainly affect such things as “shadow buses.” TARTA provided those on many routes to make sure there weren’t seat shortages.
The changes will take effect April 3 and are “spread across the district” to coincide with the end of spring break, he said.
Mr. Gant also described the changes as “minor,” resulting in fewer buses lining up at schools, but still with adequate space for all riders.
After a five-year hiatus prompted by fiscal austerity, Toledo Public Schools resumed providing student transportation above state minimums this school year, and resumed contracting with TARTA to operate special routes serving high schools throughout the district. To the extent they need transportation, Toledo grade-school students ride traditional yellow school buses.
While anyone paying a regular bus fare may ride TARTA’s “school routes,” those buses are tailored to student transportation.
Mr. Gee had noted last summer that after five years of no school routes, officials weren’t sure what student ridership would be like, so they would err on the side of providing too much service and revise it as necessary.
TARTA had retired many of its oldest buses after TPS dropped all nonmandated student transportation in 2010. It obtained 44 surplus buses from transit authorities in Columbus, Cleveland, Hamilton-Middletown, and Akron last year to handle the revived school contract.
Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.
First Published March 4, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
