Economy

MTS To Cut Sunday Bus Service, But Improve Trolley Service

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 9, 2010 at 1:44 PM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System plans to radically cut back bus service on Sundays next month. At the same time the agency is making significant improvements to its trolley service.

Rob Schupp of the Metropolitan Transit System says huge budget shortfalls have left his agency with no choice but to reduce public bus transport again. Starting next month about 145,000 Sunday bus trips will be eliminated or reduced.

“We’re going to make probably the biggest cut in MTS history,” Schupp said, “We’re knocking out $7 million worth of service on Sundays. Entire routes on Sunday will be discontinued, a lot of routes will have lower frequencies. It’s up to 200,000 people that we’re affecting with this service cut.”

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Schupp said lower sales taxes have affected the funding available for transit, and the state has withheld millions of dollars that were supposed to be earmarked to operate public transportation.

On the other hand, the agency has a capital budget of $600 million to upgrade trolley lines, so passengers can get anywhere they want to go on one transfer.

By next year almost 60 new trolley cars will be running on those lines.

Schupp described the changes at the CALTRANS annual Transportation Update meeting.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.