Transit advocates are steaming over MTA
plans to cut some late night service, a change that would, in effect, lop an hour from the agency's train service. In response to these proposed cuts, Bart Reed of the
Transit Coalition fired off the following letter to city, county, and MTA officials:
Dear MTA Director:
RE: MTA Rail Span-of-Service Reductions
We are concerned about the staff actions to reduce the last hour
of service on Metro Rail without any public input or comment
or due process.
Despite staff comment to the contrary, there are many working
people that use that last hour of service and depend upon it to
get to/from late night jobs at Los Angeles International Airport
via the Green Line and to/from food service / customer service /
building maintenance and many other jobs via the Red / Blue
and Gold Lines.
Using transit is a habit and acting unilaterally to disturb this
habit will harm many of our dependent users and most are not
in a position to fight back. And there isn't late night bus service
to take up the slack or to fall back upon in many cases.
We ask that cuts to span of service to the rail network be avoided.
As an option to save, increasing time between trains is a
possibility, as trains can be made longer to hold the crowds.
Please remember that the strike destroyed the rail riding habits for
many and halted ridership growth for over 15 months. This type
of cut will have long term harm too.
Thank you in advance for helping preserve our span of service.
Bart Reed, Executive Director
To join in the fight to save late night service, you can click
here for more info, and
here for a printable flier.
