A solution for busy buses

HART's new director takes a packed trip for himself to test two MacDill riders' complaints. Buses are added.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times Staff Writer
Published November 6, 2007

TAMPA - The two military servicemen complained that the daily express buses between MacDill Air Force Base and Brandon, Riverview and FishHawk Ranch were far too crowded - standing room only.

"I believe that having a large group of people standing on a bus for a 24-, 25-mile or greater route is just a recipe for disaster," one of them, Douglas Vartanian of Riverview, said last month at a meeting of the agency that runs the bus system.

"When a bus driver has to make a sudden stop because of some other driver's mistake, it puts the people standing in the aisles at greater risk of injury."

They'd been told that, because of budget cuts, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit couldn't afford to put an extra bus on the route.

But after they said their piece at the HART board meeting last month, the new head of the agency went to check out the situation in person.

On Monday, HART executive director David Armijo announced a compromise: Starting Nov. 18, at a cost of $25,000 a year, another express bus to and from MacDill will be added on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays so military personnel who live in east Hillsborough won't have to stand for the whole ride.

Why not on Mondays and Fridays? The bus carries fewer passengers then.

Ed Crawford, HART's government affairs director, explained that some of the express bus passengers drive their cars to MacDill on Monday and take the bus home.

They leave their cars at work all week so they can drive around the base, which has no public transportation.

"It's a huge base," Crawford said. On Fridays, the bus passengers drive their cars home for the weekend.

MacDill officials also asked HART to add an express bus from the base to New Tampa when it has the money.

Also Monday, HART's board of directors created a four-member task force to explore alternate funding sources, such as a sales tax, if voters approve a January referendum that would cut property taxes statewide.

Much of the transit agency's funding comes from property taxes.

A half-cent sales tax, which would double HART's budget, would also require voters' approval. The earliest a referendum could be held is November 2008.

The task force is to report back to the board in February.

"I think we put it to voters and ask them whether they want to support mass transit in Hillsborough County," board chairman Ricardo Roig said.

Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@sptimes.com or 813 226-3435.

[Last modified November 5, 2007, 23:59:56]