What started as a plan to cut the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority’s trolley service due to a funding shortfall has ended in fixed-route bus services being extended and the trolley being saved—at least until January.
The WATA Board of Directors continued its meeting from May 15 to Monday, needing additional information about costs associated with proposed service changes. When the board met Monday, the benefits outweighed the costs and the board voted to keep services rather than cut them. An additional federal grant of $42,000 may be awarded to WATA in September, which could offset the entire deficit remaining after service changes.
WATA employee lunch breaks had been one-hour paid breaks, which was not in compliance with James City County’s lunch break policy. WATA has come into compliance with the county’s policy, giving drivers a 30-minute unpaid lunch break, which saves about $100,000 per year and offsets WATA’s deficit. While the change means for an hour each day one less bus will run per route during times with the least ridership, year-round fixed-route bus services will be extended from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. effective July 1.
The board had been presented with the option to cut summer extended hours, but decided not to take that route.
“That’s part of what I consider our core services for those that use our buses,” said Jodi Miller, board member and Williamsburg’s assistant city manager, referring to the summer extended hours.
Doug Powell, board member and James City County assistant county administrator, said he communicated to the county Board of Supervisors the trolley would be cut, if anything, not the summer hours. The board had also previously decided if any services would be cut, the trolley would be looked at first.
Because of the year-round service extension, summer extended hours will also be pushed back so fixed-route buses will run until 11 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. at a cost of about $100,000. WATA Executive Director Kevan Danker said summer extended hours ideally would be from Memorial Day through Labor Day, but due to the fact several extended hours drivers are school bus drivers by day, the service may not start until June. With the board’s go-ahead, Danker is looking at hiring drivers immediately and the service will begin as soon as drivers are hired.
The trolley service was teetering on the edge of being reduced or cut, and has been saved for at least another six or seven months. Effective immediately, WATA will work on increasing its frequency from 40 to 30 minutes so riders won’t have to wait as long to get on the trolley. They’ll also look at deleting duplicate stops; if a stop is served by a fixed-route bus, the trolley may no longer use the same stop.
WATA owns three trolley buses and currently uses only one. For big area events, WATA will look at bringing another one or two trolleys into service so more people can utilize the service. Advertising efforts will be ramped up; one of the biggest concerns heard during recent WATA public hearings was a lack of information about the trolley’s schedule.
In December, the trolley will be re-evaluated. If ridership has not increased, the trolley could be cut to a Friday through Sunday schedule starting in January 2014, which would provide a savings of $58,000 to offset the cost of the extended summer hours when coupled with September’s potential grant funds.
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