MTA Must Mitigate Nighttime Bus Cuts

The “special master” overseeing court-ordered improvements in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bus service directed the agency Tuesday to ease the impact of late-night service cuts on transit-dependent bus riders.

In issuing his findings, Donald T. Bliss cited testimony from janitors and cooks that the cuts have forced them to take up to three buses to get to work and walk 10 blocks or more late at night to catch a bus home.

“A fundamental purpose of the consent decree,” wrote Bliss, a Washington attorney appointed by U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., “is to improve bus service for transit-dependent riders. Therefore, any restructuring designed to achieve productivity and efficiency enhancements should be part of an overall plan to improve bus service to the transit-dependent.”

MTA officials have not decided whether they will appeal Bliss’ decision to Hatter. It was the first time that Bliss has issued a formal ruling since advocates for bus riders and the MTA signed the consent decree more than a year ago to settle a lawsuit accusing the transit authority of discriminating against poor and minority bus riders.

Transit officials eliminated or reduced “night owl service” on more than a dozen lines in December to save $2 million a year. Officials said it was too costly to run buses that often served fewer than 10 riders an hour; they contended that riders can still catch a bus “within reasonable walking distance,” no more than three-fourths of a mile from the canceled routes.

The cuts set off a reaction that resulted in police dragging six protesters out of an MTA board meeting in December.

Constance L. Rice, western regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the plaintiffs’ lead attorney in the federal suit, called Bliss’ decision an important victory. “It sets the framework for the decree,” she said. “You can’t cut bus service unless it’s in the context of improving overall service.”

Julian Burke, MTA’s interim chief executive officer, had not decided on the agency’s next step. But he said Tuesday that MTA’s intent was to use the savings to improve bus service so “that the buses that were driving around with such few passengers in the middle of the night could be better used to reduce overcrowding.”

Eric Mann, director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, the lead plaintiff, said he will urge the MTA to restore the late-night bus service immediately, while the parties work on finding more economical alternatives.

Bliss directed the MTA to work with the Bus Riders Union in developing a plan to “provide safe, viable replacement transportation service” to the transit dependent, perhaps by using taxi vouchers or vans. If a plan is not submitted within 30 days, the special master said he will recommend that the late-night bus service be restored.