Five-dollar fares. No free rail zone. Reduced lift services for people living with disabilities. Less frequent services for specific bus and train lines. TriMet and the region are in a world of hurt.
It’s hard to believe that it has come to this, after knowing for years that without major overhauls the system would be overwhelmed.
According to OPAL, a grassroots nonprofit advocating for environmental and social justice, “Faulty analysis is now being used to justify the current proposal to eliminate round-trip transfers, all to save at most $3 million dollars.”
In addition, TriMet is proposing to eliminate the Free Rail Zone to save $2.7 million, and cut back on the lift service to save $400,000. Combined, these cuts equal less than 2 percent of TriMet’s annual budget.
What isn’t reflected in these numbers is the negative impact ending the Free Rail Zone will have on business and tourism by not offering visitors and consumers the ability to travel unencumbered in the downtown zone. There is a free flow of personal commerce coarsing through the Free Rail Zone that will be stifled by new charges for access to the restaurants and shopping in the city’s core. An extra $5 to go to lunch in Chinatown? No thanks.
And compared to the savings, these cuts will disproportionately hurt people experiencing poverty, whose budgets are not expanding with the times but actually contracting. There is no spare change among these riders, for whom public transit isn’t a “choice”, but the only way to reach their job, their family and their basic needs.
Cutting back on the lift service for people living with a disability in a time when services are being cut both locally and nationally shouldn’t even be on the table. In fact, none of these cuts should be on the table. They’re short-sighted, and cut the cord for many riders who are making the choice to ride rather than drive, only now the financial benefit is reaching a tipping point.
TriMet must find a way to leverage its current and future projects with government and private partners in a way that doesn’t ride on the backs of the people who require access to public transportation.
Having the union be so stubborn concerning their health care benefit package and costs doesn’t help either. Don’t get us wrong, we’re as pro-labor as it gets, but people without any income, insurance or living with a disability shouldn’t be on the hook to pay for anyone’s co-payments. It may not be the popular thing to say, but it’s true and something has to give. This isn’t scapegoating the union, or giving a free pass to TriMet officials to blame workers’ requests when the going gets tough. The emphasis is on working together, and finding a balance.
We’re proud of Portland’s transportation system. We’re proud of the many different modes of transportation that are offered. We believe in creating new projects like the new orange line being built that will create jobs, spur new small businesses and offer riders a new mode of transportation. But we have to strike a balance that doesn’t pit services against the very people who rely on them and want to support them. We’re here for TriMet, but it has to be there for us, too.