By Carina Woudenberg : sanjosespotlight – excerpt
The Valley Transportation Authority’s service changes, which include greater frequency on its most popular routes and a new light rail line, debut Saturday. And, for the first four days, riders can try the new service for free.
The new service plan was geared partly toward boosting ridership, which has decreased in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, bus ridership dropped by 17 percent and light rail use declined 26 percent, VTA spokeswoman Brandi Childress said.
Some of that drop mirrors a nationwide decrease in ridership as the economy ticked up and steered people toward car ownership and as ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft grew in popularity.
Also, recent rail line rehabilitation has led to slowdowns, which likely contributed to lower ridership, Childress said.
Work on the VTA’s new service plan began in 2016, when the agency hired a consultant to study ridership data.
“That assessment identified options for VTA’s strategy for increasing ridership, improving the farebox recovery rate, making our service more useful to riders and lowering barriers to transit,” Childress told San José Spotlight… (more)
Municipal authorities have one thing in common. They ignore the public’s request to maintain the minimum level of service the public needs to trust the system.
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