CARTA’s two most severe budget-cutting options — scrapping the free downtown electric shuttle and ending fixed-route bus service on nights and weekends — no longer are being considered as transit officials look to make up a sizable portion of a projected $1 million shortfall.
“I still expect that we’re going to be making service cuts,” Steve Jett, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority’s board chairman, said Wednesday. “(But) I don’t think they will be as dire in one direction or the other as we thought might be the case.”
Tom Dugan, CARTA’s executive director, said one way the agency, burdened by crippling diesel fuel costs, will try to help fill its budget gap is by establishing business sponsorships. He said CARTA also will look at raising rates for the parking meters and parking lots it manages.
“It still leaves a gap that we have to be looking at, and we’re still looking at some other revenue potentials,” Mr. Dugan said. “But now we can start looking at smaller reductions in order to balance the budget.”
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Staff Photo by John Rawlston -- An electric bus operated by CARTA moves south along Broad Street.
CARTA officials recently have talked with downtown business owners and other interested parties and now have a good sense that the agency can raise a substantial amount of money through private sponsorships, Mr. Dugan said.
“I’m not even sure who (the sponsors) are at this point,” he said.
At next Monday’s public hearing on its fuel-induced budget crisis, CARTA will present lists of service cuts that could be made to the shuttle and regular bus service. Residents will be asked to give their priorities on where the reductions should be made, Mr. Dugan said.
Bob Doak, president and chief executive officer of the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he’s glad the shuttle and fixed-route bus service can be spared.
“We certainly are pleased that this will help to keep our city a vibrant, animated and green community,” he said. “I’m pleased that CARTA has eliminated both of those as options.”
As transit officials discussed ways to balance the budget, Mr. Dugan has said that charging a fee for the now-free shuttle could cause ridership to decline. But he said CARTA plans to put donation containers on the vehicles — which transport tourists and others around downtown and the North Shore — so riders can make voluntary contributions.
“None of us … have any idea whether this is going to deliver a significant amount of money — enough to make it worthwhile, in other words,” he said. “But it is certainly a step to take prior to looking at putting on a charge.”
Cynthia Stanley-Cash, president of the North Brainerd Neighborhood Association, said she thinks CARTA should charge 50 cents to ride the shuttle. The service is valued because it keeps people from having to pay high charges to park their cars downtown, she said.
“They would gladly pay it,” she said of a shuttle fee.
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