If you ride city buses in Cincinnati or surrounding areas, your go-to stop might go away this weekend.
As part of a pilot program to test ways to speed up service, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's Metro bus service is removing 115 stops serving routes 17, 31, 33 and 41 — about 18 percent of all stops serving those routes. Overall, Metro operates about 4,000 stops system-wide.
Called FAStops, the pilot "aims to not only speed up trip times, but to allow for the agency to make improvements along routes by streamlining bus stop placement," Metro officials said in a news release today. "Each stop is assessed based on its location — ensuring stops aren’t too close together — as well as its usage, amenities, safety and accessibility."
Metro said it studied stop placement compared to other cities and has been weighing public input since announcing the project in June last year. Metro held off on eliminating more than a dozen stops after holding 14 public information sessions about the program, officials say. Riders can still provide feedback by emailing [email protected] or filling out an online survey at go-metro.com/fastops.
You can find a list of stops to be eliminated here or consult a map showing removed stops here.
Metro, which is funded by slim state contributions and a rather unique City of Cincinnati earnings tax instead of a standard county-wide tax, has struggled with financial constraints and looming deficits. SORTA's board last year opted against putting a Hamilton County sales tax levy on the ballot that would have shored up that deficit and funded an expansion of Metro, but could do so in 2020. In the meantime, transit activists have called for an increase in the city's earnings tax to better fund bus service.
