Early morning bus cuts called economic negative for county

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s proposed budget for the year starting Oct. 1 would eliminate 12 bus routes and reduce early morning or late-night service on dozens of others – changes transit advocates warn would leave thousands of riders with fewer transportation options.

While presenting her proposed $14.3 billion budget, Ms. Levine Cava said public transportation remains a top priority, describing the recommendations as difficult and noting they would be subject to public discussion. The proposed route eliminations and service reductions would reduce general fund spending by about $31.4 million, the proposed budget says.

The proposal eliminates county-operated bus routes 132, 203, 204, 279, 288 and 338, as well as contract-operated bus routes 42, 16, 25, 272, 57 and 70. It also would end service before 5:59 a.m. on 44 Miami-Dade-operated bus routes and after 10:01 p.m. on 38 county-operated routes. Four contract-operated routes also would have early morning or late-night service reduced.

According to the proposed budget, eliminating early morning service would save about $12.2 million, ending late-night service would save $10.4 million, eliminating six county-operated routes would save $5 million, eliminating six contract-operated routes would save $3.5 million and reduced service on four contract-operated routes would save about $265,000.

Under the proposal, riders affected by the reductions would be expected to find another bus route or another mode of transportation.

Cathy Dos Santos, executive director of Transit Alliance Miami, a nonprofit transportation advocacy organization, said Transit Alliance believes reducing early morning and late-night service would affect more riders than eliminating the proposed routes because those trips serve workers with limited transportation options.

“We will be specifically advocating for the restoration of the early morning service that is proposed to be cut that has a cost of about $12.2 million but also has the most riders affected … 6,826 riders on a weekday basis, so that’s … almost 7,000 riders that on a weekly basis would be left without an alternative to, honestly, for the most part, get to work,” she said.

“The way that the department frames their information is that their calculation is that a lot of these riders will have to quote-unquote find an alternate bus route or mode of transportation, and ultimately, it’s a hard number to understand until the changes are in place because there’s a certain level in at which you know if the alternative bus route is so far, that’s no longer viable to you,” Ms. Dos Santos added.

“If it means that you’re starting your commute now 30 minutes earlier than you were before,” she said, “for some folks that might not be viable to them, so it might mean that folks are finding alternative modes of transportation in terms of maybe they’re taking an Uber to an additional location where they still have service, or they are carpooling, or they are incurring personal debt to buy a car and to operate it, and now their commute looks completely different, and it has a detriment ultimately into our economy because that’s now debt that our folks have to absorb and additional expenses that they have to incur that they’re going to have to make other cuts in their own lives.”

In addition, the budget proposes supporting Metrobus, Metrorail and Metromover operations by spending $89 million from the county’s rail expansion reserve, known as the Transportation Infrastructure Improvement District (TIID). The TIID captures increases in property tax revenue within designated transit districts to help fund future rapid transit expansions.

The proposed budget also eliminates 200 vacant bus operator positions. It states that the positions had remained vacant and were retained to provide flexibility if service levels increased in the future.

“It’s quite a combination of things,” Ms. Dos Santos said. “Partly, it’s the reality that this budget is already preparing for the case scenario of the property tax amendment possibly passing in November and continuing to restrict our spending. It also is due to the reality that with inflation, costs to run transportation operations has increased significantly, and transit is one of our most expensive things that we run as a county because so many pieces of it are expensive.”

“It’s the operator part of ensuring that we have the proper staffing to run these routes,” she continued. “It’s the vehicle piece that every single bus is quite expensive. It’s the reality that we’ve also chosen to put some routes into place that certainly are serving riders but maybe are not serving riders in such an economically viable way as some of these early morning services, for example, that we’re currently proposing to cut … that is about $6 per rider.”

Ms. Dos Santos said the transit cuts are tied to financial pressures facing Miami-Dade County, including added strain on the general fund from constitutional offices. She said the county has taken on more costs each year without enough revenue growth to match those demands, and raising fees or other costs on residents remains a challenge amid an affordability crisis, with state decisions continuing to require local governments to take on more responsibilities with fewer resources.

According to Ms. Dos Santos, eliminating the bus services could force some riders to find more expensive alternatives, such as ride-hailing services or purchasing a vehicle, increasing commuting costs and potentially affecting employment.

“We have done calculations based on data that the department was able to provide in terms of the cost by route of just looking at the early morning service, and ultimately we’re looking at this service on average being about $6 per rider per trip. When we’re looking at the national averages of how much it costs to move people on a usual, like, bus service, which the range is usually between $8 to $10, these are very competitive routes, so economically, we know we’re managing to move people that move our economy for very little, and we know it’s going to be a detrimental impact,” Ms. Dos Santos said.

“This is going to affect people’s ability to get to work on time,” she said, “which ultimately means that they might lose their jobs or they might have to look for a different job that they can get to with the service that they have available, and we don’t even have the full understanding of what the overall impact in our economy would be for something like this, but we know that it would absolutely hamper people’s ability to live and stay in Miami.”

County commissioners are scheduled to cast their final votes on the mayor’s budget proposal at the second and final hearing on Sept. 17. Transit Alliance Miami plans to urge commissioners to restore early morning bus service before the budget is adopted.