In the context of rising operational costs, level funding of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority is effectively a budget cut (“PVTA to hike fares to help cover $3 million deficit,” April 11).
Gov. Charlie Baker and the House Ways and Means Committee have a simple message to everyone who uses public transportation in the Pioneer Valley: you’re on your own. By funding the state’s regional transit authorities at $80 million, they’re saying fare hikes and route cuts are preferable to people getting to work, school and medical appointments.
Reading the writing on the wall, on April 9 the PVTA Advisory Board approved increases for fares, passes and paratransit trips, along with service cutbacks scheduled to go into effect in September. Such moves may well be essential to the financial health of PVTA.
But, let’s be honest, these cuts will hit our most vulnerable citizens — persons with disabilities, elders and the poor — the hardest, and will make holding jobs and getting essential health care a whole lot more difficult. The local economic and social impacts of these cuts will be immediately counterproductive and inequitable.
Academic institutions across the Valley will lose transit service, which is essential to retaining students and managing parking. Cuts in Springfield will limit worker access to the MGM casino and resort complex opening in the fall. The number of jobs for bus drivers and maintenance staff will drop.
People of color and those in poverty will bear a disproportionate share of the burden of the service losses and fare increases. And approximately 2,000 Americans with Disabilities Act riders and another 1,500 seniors who use PVTA’s vans would lose already limited hours and service areas.
This doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Citizens concerned about community and opportunity can write the next chapter. Stavros urges everyone to call their state representatives and ask them to support Rep. Sarah Peake’s amendment that would fund the regional transit authorities at $88 million — the level the Legislature agreed to do several years ago.
We can have public transportation that helps all of us.
Jim Kruidenier
Jessamyn Smyth
Amherst
The writers are on the staff at the Stavros Center for Independent Living.