Posts Tagged ‘public transit’

Schuyler County’s Big Screw Up

Posted on: July 22, 2008 at 9:06 am | Posted under: Life, Rants
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I take the bus once a week up to Ithaca from Elmira to spend time on-site at the resort.  As an Internet Marketing Manager, most of my time is spent in front of the computer, so I do a vast majority of my work from my home office.  Well, this week marked the start of the new bus service changes that Schuyler County implemented.  You see, Chemung County Transit (the transit system in the county where Elmira resides) is a Joint Municipal Alliance between Chemung & Schuyler counties.  Schuyler county gets funding from the Federal & State governments to aid in the operation of the transit system.  Chemung county operates the transit system and all of the buses are housed just a few blocks from downtown Elmira.

Well, Schuyler county decided to cut back and cancel service of two of the regional routes.  The regional routes run through multiple counties and are a little more expensive than the $1 local routes.  So, there are now only two runs for Schuyler county, BAD IDEA!  The bus this morning was packed to the gills and was just a big mess.  People had to stand from the last park & ride stop until we got to the first stop in Ithaca.  I understand that Schuyler county wants to save some money (and jack up the rates in the process), but this is not good.

I have a feeling that if something is not done about this, then the riders will start making formal complaints or just stop riding altogther.  Who knows though.  But Schuyler county really screwed up here and it is only going to get worse before it gets better.

Cheers!