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During the Great Recession, San Diego's Metropolitan Transit System was forced to raise fares and make sweeping cuts to bus and trolley services — most of them on Sundays. As the economy has recovered, however, funding for public transit is lagging behind. Transcript for audioclip 31330

One of the first things you might notice when meeting Lijon Russell is her lipstick. It's a muted metallic purple, fitting with her infectious laugh and radiant smile. The 37-year-old mother of three works as a cashier at Home Depot in the Mountain View neighborhood. Her home is about 3 miles away, a quick drive on state Route 94 and Interstate 805.

"If I had a car, it'd take me like five to 10 minutes to get home," Russell said on a recent Sunday after finishing work.

Instead, her Sunday commute home takes about an hour.

Russell is one of thousands of San Diegans who, because she cannot afford a car, is dependent on public transit. She and a number of neighbors recently petitioned the Metropolitan Transit System, which operates buses and trolleys in San Diego, to restore Sunday service to the 916 and 917 bus routes. Those routes stop directly in front of their low-income housing development in Oak Park, but run only Monday to Saturday every 30 to 60 minutes.

They said the added Sunday service would save seniors and disabled residents from having to make the uphill walk to their homes. On Sundays, many are running errands, visiting family or going to church.

MTS held a meeting with the residents in April to discuss options, but said it cannot afford the changes the residents want because they wouldn't generate enough new passenger trips.

Recession forces cuts

It wasn't long ago that Sunday bus services were better in San Diego. But starting in 2007, the cash-strapped state and federal governments slashed subsidies to public transit. Local sales tax revenues also fell, leaving MTS with a substantial budget gap.

To cope with the deficit, MTS raised fares and eliminated free bus transfers in 2008. Then in 2010, MTS made sweeping cuts to several bus and trolley routes. Most of the cuts affected Sunday services.

Ridership on Sundays tended to be lower, MTS said, and passengers said their trips on Sundays are usually more flexible than weekday trips. MTS said focusing the cuts on Sundays would affect fewer people than across-the-board cuts.

The slashed services were discussed at the Dec. 10, 2009 meeting of the MTS board of directors, which is made up of elected officials from across San Diego County. The meeting saw about 50 people speak during public comment, nearly all of them urging MTS to reconsider their plans.

"On Sundays, the bus 11 is the only bus that gets me to church. It takes me three hours, but at least it's there," Jacqueline Wilson said at the meeting, fighting back tears. "My livelihood is going down the tubes. How am I supposed to get an education, how am I supposed to get a job if there's no transportation?"

A meager recovery

In its presentation of the service cuts, MTS said it hoped they would be temporary.

"With this economic crisis being the driver behind a lot of our budgetary crisis, our hope is that as the crisis eases and we start seeing more sales tax subsidy coming in, we'll be able to … rebuild the Sunday network," said MTS chief of staff Sharon Cooney at the 2009 meeting.

But those hopes have been dashed. Subsidies for the 2017 fiscal year are still about $20 million below pre-recession levels, when adjusted for inflation.

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Recent local sales tax revenues have been higher than expected, MTS said, allowing them to operate several "rapid" bus routes with limited stops and faster service. But the slow recovery of state and federal dollars has held back the full restoration of the many bus and trolley services that were cut.

"The cutting and ultimate restoration of services has been very methodical and strategic," MTS spokesman Rob Schupp said in an email. "Sixty percent (of the routes cut during the recession) have been restored or partially restored, primarily as warranted by ridership demand."

MTS says its job is especially tough because it gets a smaller chunk of local tax dollars than public transit in other cities. For every dollar spent in San Diego County, one-sixth of one cent goes to public transit.

Last year MTS logged its first overall decline in ridership in several years, largely due to cheap gas prices. The transit agency is currently conducting surveys of riders' habits and preferences to ensure it's operating the network efficiently.

Difficult choices

Some transit advocates say chronic underfunding forces MTS to make tough decisions about when to invest in services that get high ridership, and thus bring in more money; and when to provide services that may see lower ridership, but that serve the most transit-dependent riders.

"There really are difficult choices between efficiency and cost effectiveness for rides and these social equity concerns, and making sure that people who don't have access to a car are able to get around using public transit," said Colin Parent, policy counsel for the nonprofit Circulate San Diego. "It's not that one or the other is totally the most important thing. They're both important, and you have to balance them both."

It's the urgent need for more public transit funding that led Circulate San Diego to endorse Measure A, a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot that would give about 42 percent of its money to public transit. The added revenue would allow MTS to increase bus and trolley frequencies and build new routes.

Many other environmental groups oppose the tax because it does not give enough money to public transit, and expands freeways in low-income areas that already suffer from bad pollution. Some conservatives oppose the tax because the share of money given to freeways — about 14 percent — is not enough.

'It's not reliable'

As Lijon Russell arrived at her home about an hour after leaving work, she reflected on how difficult life without a car is in San Diego.

"When you're filling out an application for a job it asks you, 'Do you have reliable transportation to and from work?' Most people put 'yes' because that's what you have to do to get the job," she said. "But they're still on public transportation. And it's not reliable."

San Diego's Climate Action Plan, passed last December, expects thousands of San Diegans to stop driving cars and start taking public transit. But without the money to improve its network, MTS risks losing some of the riders it already has.

Asked whether she would like a car, Russell immediately said yes.

"I do want a car," she said. "It would make my life so much easier."

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Andrew Bowen

Metro Reporter

I cover local government — a broad beat that includes housing, homelessness and infrastructure. I'm especially interested in the intersections of land use, transportation and climate change.

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