I read with interest the claim by Pioneer Valley Transit Authority officials that it is the state budget that is to blame for proposed cuts to 16 local bus routes, including those that serve the Survival Center, the colleges, link people to grocery stores, and connect Holyoke to Springfield (“Colleges balk at bus cuts,” July 13).
As someone who attended the hearings on the proposed cuts in Northampton on June 29, I was stunned by how quickly PVTA officials there backed off that claim when confronted by those of us who had spoken to our state senators and representatives. Apparently PVTA was level-funded by the Legislature and didn’t notify the western Massachusetts delegation of any possibility of cuts. As your article notes, they also didn’t consult with the colleges nor ask them to increase their contribution.
Rather, PVTA seems to be considering reducing the public transportation that dramatically improves the quality of life in this Valley — reducing air pollution and asthma rates by reducing car traffic, linking the colleges, and connecting people who cannot afford a car to work, groceries, and health care — for rather obscure reasons. At the hearing, officials cited high fuel prices (compared to when?), wear and tear on equipment (surely normal), decreased ridership (even though many of its riders are subsidized, either paying no fare through the colleges or reduced fares because of anti-poverty programs, suggesting it shouldn’t matter that much to their budgets, even if we accept their numbers, about which many are skeptical), and increased salaries. This seems like thin stuff indeed.
Taken together with the PVTA’s failure to even ask for more money from the most obvious sources, I was left with a lot more questions than answers about why the buses I rely to get to and from work every day and make this place what it is might be going away.
If I were a newspaper reporter, I might be extremely interested in seeing the PVTA budget, and finding out what exactly is accounting for the shortfall.
Laura Briggs
Northampton