Meeting a lot of great people today on @GCRTA trains and buses. Onward. pic.twitter.com/KghqnXt4KY — Ginger Christ (@GChristCLE) March 10, 2017

Counting on public transit

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Each day, roughly 200,000 people use on the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

For many, it is their lifeblood. Without RTA, they couldn’t get to work, get to school or feed their families.

But the future ability of RTA to serve those riders is uncertain as looming state and federal funding cuts near.

The Plain Dealer spent a day on the system's buses and trains, talking to the people who count on public transit day in and day out. Here are their stories.

Story by Ginger Christ, The Plain Dealer

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Photo by Ginger Christ/The Plain Dealer

An alternative to driving

Amina Bell, a 21-year-old who lives in West Boulevard, leaves her house more than three hours before her shift at Marshall’s in Beachwood to make sure she gets to work on time.

“It’s very time consuming,” Bell said.

Sometimes, she said, the buses “are late or don’t show up at all.”

Bell grew up taking the bus to Cleveland Heights High School because the district only provided transportation for elementary and middle school students. But the No. 37 – a route she characterized as a lifeline for her back then – was cut last year during RTA’s service reduction and now doesn’t travel south of Severance Circle.

“It’s dangerous, especially outside of a suburb,” Bell said. “Like Alianna, that never should have happened.”

Fourteen-year-old Alianna DeFreeze was abducted and killed last month while transferring between RTA buses on her way to her charter school.

“In certain areas, I feel unsafe,” Bell said. “They should have someone at the Rapid stations all of the time because things happen.”

Bell’s dad wanted her to learn how to navigate the RTA system. Now, that knowledge has paid off.

Her car broke down in January, and she’s had to rely on RTA until she can afford to get it fixed. She takes two buses and two trains to get to work each day, a commute that takes nearly three hours out of her day – more than double the time it took her to drive the same distance.

“I have to do everything a lot earlier,” she said.

Sometimes, she skips breakfast, and often she doesn’t get home until 8 or 9 p.m. To pass the time on the bus and the train, she listens to music. On this particular Friday, Big Sean is her artist of choice.

But the delays are worth it because Bell is working toward enrolling at Lakeland. She wants to become a trauma surgeon, following in the footsteps of her mom, who is a nurse. And she needs to support her dog, Louie, an eight-year-old Havenese.

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Photo by Ginger Christ/The Plain Dealer

Access to work

Loretta Ruffin has taken the No. 41 bus to her job as a cleaner at Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland every work day for the past 15 years.

“I know who I ride the bus with every day,” said Ruffin, 64, from Shaker Heights. “I enjoy riding the bus. I talk to people.”

The ride, a little more than an hour, takes her through South Euclid to East Cleveland in late morning.

“I go to work, go to church, go to the grocery store and go back home,” Ruffin said. “This is my scenery.”

In the evening, her boyfriend picks her up from work at 8:30 p.m.

“My daughters don’t let me get on the bus at night,” Ruffin said.

She likes RTA’s newer buses, and said she feels safer now because of the cameras installed on them.

But she still doesn’t take any chances. She carries a small tote bag, just large enough to carry her lunch and her cell phone. She never carries cash. Even though she’s never had a problem with crime on the bus, she still is wary.

She only talks to people with whom she feels comfortable. Mostly, she connects with college students headed to Case Western Reserve University and John Carroll University. She’s worked at various schools in the community for decades and recognizes some of the kids.

She willingly shares photos of her family – two daughters and four grandchildren, all of whom live nearby, and in her softspoken voice quietly will reveal details about her recent cancer diagnosis.

“I’m retiring soon,” she said. “I still use the bus.”

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Photo by Ginger Christ/The Plain Dealer

Navigating the city

Chris Brace, a 19-year-old computer science student at Case, doesn’t have a car here. Instead, the Acton, Mass. native relies on public transit to get around Cleveland.

“Most of the time, I’m limited to what transit can do,” Brace said.

He uses a U-Pass – a universal pass given to students at local colleges – to ride RTA, university shuttles while on campus and CircleLink – a free circulator service – in University Circle.

While the schedules of the shuttles can be “wonky,” he said RTA has “never failed” him.

“Every time I’ve had trouble on transit, it’s been my own fault,” Brace said.

Those usually are times are when he’s tried to catch a bus late at night. But, for the most part, he said transit in Cleveland is much easier to navigate than in Boston, near his hometown.

“Public transit in Boston will get you where you need to go but it will confuse the hell out of you,” Brace said.

He takes the Red Line to the airport to go home. On this day, he lugs with him a carry on bag, headed back to Massachusetts for spring break. He uses time on the train to catch up on schoolwork.

In addition to local buses and trains, Brace also turns to his bike to get around Case.

“This last year, I realized the campus was too large not to have a bike. A bike is much faster,” he said.

A trip that might take 30 minutes by shuttle only takes about seven by bike, he said.

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Photo by Ginger Christ/The Plain Dealer

Going back to school

Terrell Christian takes public transit everywhere, whether it’s for classes at Cuyahoga Community College or to go shopping at Westgate Shopping Center.

The 48-year-old Ohio City resident is working toward a degree in social work because he wants a job that isn’t as physically taxing as he gets older.

“I need to learn something up here,” Christian said, while tapping the side of his head.

On this Friday, Christian heads out of downtown on the Cleveland State Line to go shopping in Fairview Park. He sees the reopening of Public Square to buses as “much more logical.”

“I think it’s better for everybody,” he said.

Because he’s a student at Tri-C, Christian is able to use a U-Pass to get around town. But he has seen the effect RTA’s cost-saving measures, notably the loss of the community circulators, have had on the area.

“I don’t think you should pay,” Christian said of public transit.

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