UW Transportation Services proposes reduction in campus bus routes

Last Wednesday, members of the University of Wisconsin Transportation Services held a public hearing for proposed reductions in campus bus services on the UW-Madison campus at the Madison Municipal Building.

“The last two years we’ve been running a structural deficit and we’ve been looking at different ways to stabilize our programs,” UW Transportation Services Director Patrick Kass said..

As of now, UW Transportation Services, the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) and UW Housing jointly fund the campus bus service. UW Housing accounts for 6 percent of finances while ASM and UW Transportation Services equally pay for the rest.

“Currently we’re looking at a 10 percent cut, which is about 3,200 hours,” Kass said.

The $1 million structural deficit has caused UW Transportation Services to propose a series of adjustments that are set to begin in the fall of 2012. Kass and Colin Conn, Bus Schedule Planner for Madison Metro, addressed five potential alternatives to bus routes.

 “When we started this process our goals were understanding that with 2.5 million riders, 30,000 hours of service, any cut would have an impact,” Kass said. “So our goal was to impact the fewest number of people that we possibly could.”

Some potential alternative bus routes discussed at the hearing included the elimination of an entire bus from Route 80 during the standard weekday schedule, which would reduce frequency from about seven minutes to ten, saving an annual 1,645 hours. Another option discussed proposed the elimination of one bus on Route 85 after 10 a.m. on the standard weekday schedule, which would save 1,207 hours annually.

Currently, the majority of the service, at 76 percent, is on Route 80, which also serves as the main campus bus.

Proposed route changes haven’t been made without concerns from students and others who use the UW campus bus routes. While there were a few concerned students at the meeting, several more who weren’t able to make the meeting e-mailed their apprehension to scheduling changes.

“I oppose reductions in service to Routes 80-85. I am in graduate school and regularly have evening classes. I often rely on Route 81 in particular, and it would be a huge disadvantage to me (and likely, many others) if service to this route was cut,” wrote one student.

While student and UW input will be considered, ultimately, Transportation Services will make the scheduling decisions.