[NFBOH-Cleveland] No fare hikes, systemwide service cuts anticipated in RTA’s 2020 budget - cleveland.com

[Cheryl Fields]

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/11/no-fare-hikes-systemwide-service-cuts-anticipated-in-rtas-2020-budget.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter%20-%20Wake%20Up&utm_campaign=Newsletter:%20The%20Wake%20Up

No fare hikes, systemwide service cuts anticipated in RTA’s 2020 budget
By Courtney Astolfi, cleveland.com
Posted Nov 12, 2019

RTA assumes no fare hikes or major service cuts in its proposed budget for 2020, trustees were told Tuesday.
RTA assumes no fare hikes or major service cuts in its proposed budget for 2020, trustees were told Tuesday.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority proposes to balance its 2020 budget without fare increases or systemwide reductions in routes or service.

However, RTA trustees are expected next summer to again consider a twice-delayed fare increase. And bus routes will likely change next year.

Those plans were presented to trustees on Tuesday as part of RTA’s annual budget process. Board members are expected to vote on a final budget in late December.

The authority is expected to receive about $284 million in revenue, Budget and Management Director Kay Sutula told the board, and spend or set aside for future projects about $296 million.

That leaves RTA with a $12 million operating shortfall, which will be covered by reserves. RTA will end 2019 with nearly two months’ worth of operating reserves, but the 2020 shortfall will reduce the reserve to just over one month’s worth.

The 2020 budget is being proposed as RTA considers the results of five studies, including looks at fares and bus routes, over the next decade. The studies come as RTA ridership continues to decline.

Passenger fares are expected to comprise about 15 percent of 2020 income, and represent a shrinking amount of RTA’s revenue. The amount collected from fares was $46.6 million in 2018, and is expected to total $43.2 million this year, due partially to declining ridership, and partially to construction-related closures on the Red Line, Sutula said. Fares are expected to continue to decline in 2020 and beyond, according to projections Sutula presented to the board.

It remains unclear what trustees will do in August, when they are expected to consider for the third time a 25-cent fare increase. That increase was anticipated to go into effect in 2018, but was twice postponed to allow time to complete the fare study.

RTA is also considering how to redesign bus routes and is expected to consider significant service changes in 2020. The amount of service RTA offers systemwide is expected to remain the same. But where the routes are located and the frequency of buses will likely change, Deputy General Manager for Operations Joel Freilich told the board.

Once the redesign study wraps up, RTA staff will develop one or more plans that will cost the same as the authority’s current bus route system. The “cost-neutral” plan or plans will be presented to the public and the board before RTA decides how to change its routes.

Current service levels, however, can’t be sustained, Freilich said in his presentation to the board. To avoid future reductions in service and continued ridership decline, RTA needs to receive more tax revenues, or state or federal funding, he said.



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