KHOU-11’s Mike Zientek reports on one of the casualties of Metro’s decision to cut back on bus services:
Driving is drudgery most of the time on the Katy Freeway. That’s why riders of Metro’s 210 route let someone else take the wheel when going to work downtown.
For 19 years, it served the West Belt Park & Ride but next month, this ride will disappear.
[snip]
Metro officials say the reason they’re eliminating the route is because of the hundreds of empty parking places that are left day after day. Metro’s Vice President of Planning says it’s costing $240,000 a year to serve an average of only 115 passengers a day. This doesn’t mean that he thinks the Park & Ride idea as a whole, has hit a speed bump.
“We are looking at additional Park & Rides, it’s just that the market for Park & Ride service is a little further out,” says John Sedlak, of Metro.
[snip]
Metro insists there are other avenues. They say they would like the 210 route riders to take another nearby route or join a vanpool.
Metro says it will be eliminating another 21 routes by the end of next month in a move it says will save at least $9 million.
One of the many benefits that Metro promised in relation to the referendum on light rail was a 50% increase in bus services, including expansion of Park-and-Ride services. Instead, Metro seems to be scaling back bus services considerably. Even worse, this particular Park-and-Ride bus serves one of the most congested freeways in Houston, the Katy. The cost per rider may be higher than Metro would like, but any cost-benefit analysis ought to consider the cost in light of the additional congestion resulting from having those riders in separate vehicles along the corridor served. In some instances, the cost may well be justified.
Furthermore, in the discussion of costs, the media might also report on costs of the light rail system. Opponents of light rail predicted that the cost of the system would force Metro into cutting bus services. That may — or may not — be the direct cause of the current cuts in bus services, but consumers of news can’t make an informed conclusion without more information. It would be useful, for example, if reporters would press Metro officials on the per-rider cost of the light rail train, and the freeway congestion relieved by the same.
