"I would say I hadn't really been downtown since 1973," said Elshamy, 54, who long ago moved to the county's northwest corner, far from the city hubbub.

Then, during a Jazzercise class, a friend told her that bus 50X arrived every workday at 6:25 a.m. without fail, that it didn't stop at every corner, that there were always seats.

And a $1.50 bus ride suddenly started to look like a smooth trip to a brand new life.

"I work on the 18th floor of County Center. It's like heaven!" Elshamy said Thursday morning aboard the 50X, heading down Gunn Highway. "I love my job and I love where I work." And, much to her surprise, "I love the downtown area."

Now all that is threatened by budget cuts.

Elshamy plans to take the office elevator Monday morning to the second floor of County Center to try to persuade the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority not to kill her beloved bus route.

The 50X isn't the only route on the chopping block during the 8:30 a.m. public hearing. HARTline officials are recommending eliminating four other express routes and reducing service along two more, leaving only four express routes untouched.

The express routes are just part of the painful budget cuts to come. Holiday service is on the chopping block. So is one-third of all weekend routes.

HARTline is broke.

Elshamy has little patience for this mess. "Get other funding, move funding around," said Elshamy, a procurement analyst for Hillsborough County government. "Do what you have to do."

HARTline officials say that's just what they are doing. Decades of expanding bus service halted in the mid 1990s when finances got tight. Now, HARTline will fall short by $800,000.

To its customers, however, HARTline is just letting them down.

The 13 commuters on the 50X this cool fall morning know each others' faces and sometimes their names from years of waiting together, bumping down the highway side-by-side for 47 minutes and spilling out, all at once, into the heart of Tampa.

In Citrus Park, where there are usually two cars in every driveway, plenty of people depend on HARTline. In ties or pumps, they board the 50X, headed for jobs in municipal offices, accounting firms and downtown businesses. Plenty have driver's licenses. Some leave cars behind at the Park & Ride.

For myriad reasons, 17,378 people in Hillsborough County chose to ride an express bus in October rather than battling car-choked streets.

"I can afford to drive, I can afford to park," said Eva Ridge, 55, a stockbroker. But "there are more and more cars, and it's getting harder and harder to commute." Cutting service will only worsen congestion, Ridge said.

HARTline has pursued grants and has urged elected officials to help. But its $31-million budget this year will soon run dry.

Various factors have worked against HARTline: an aging fleet, a sprawling and fast-growing county, and lately, a conservative-minded County Commission that is loathe to spend more money on a bus system that bleeds money.

Every public transit authority in the country operates in the red, according to the American Public Transit Association. Fares cover 21 percent of HARTline's budget this year.

"Common sense will tell you this is not a moneymaking venture," Elshamy said quietly. "This is a public service."

Where's the vision, demanded Maryann Conley.

"As big a city as we are, why we don't have a bus system that works I don't understand," said Conley, an employee with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The source of the problem, she believes, is HARTline's executive director, Sharon Dent.

"She makes $120,000 a year and there's not enough for them to keep these buses running?" Conley said.

It's express bus riders who have been most vocal about the cuts. They have sent HARTline four petitions totaling 350 signatures. They've phoned HARTline offices and fired off e-mails reminding HARTline that it is alienating white-collar riders.

David Peon, a supervisor at the city's purchasing department, circulated one petition. For Peon, who has two cars and three drivers at his house in the Sugar Wood subdivision, simple math prompted him to take up the cause.

"I would have to buy another car, fuel another car, pay insurance on another car, parking downtown, so I was looking at $5,000 a year in additional expenses," said Peon, 49. The monthly $40 bus pass is a much better deal, he said. "When you're trying to raise three daughters, $5,000 goes a long way."

Sitting next to Peon was Adrienne Napoli, with a romance novel propped up in her lap. A bookkeeper for a downtown law firm, Napoli has relied on HARTline for 19 years. She and the others are now talking about their options.

"Maybe we can take turns car pooling," she said, looking around.

A few rows back, Eva Ridge called out, "Or maybe can we get one of those vans?"

Sitting nearby, Valrie Warren said nothing. She looked worried.

Like half of HARTline's overall ridership, Warren can't drive.

She relies on her friend and colleague Elshamy and Elshamy's 1999 Toyota Camry to get to a parking lot off Erlich Road, where they catch the bus together.

"I just resent the fact that I have no control over it," said Warren, who emigrated from Jamaica six years ago. "My only plan is to ride with Linda."

A few rows behind them sat Danielle McKelvey, who also can't drive. McKelvey, 28, is blind in one eye. She may soon have to catch three local buses to get to her job at Tampa General Hospital. She'll probably have to stand for much of the time.

HARTline officials point out that Citrus Park will still be served by a local bus, the No. 39, which runs along a slightly different route. At Florida Avenue, riders would have to switch to another bus.

The trip downtown would take 10 minutes more than route 50X, according to HARTline timetables.

But riders from northwest Hillsborough County don't like the idea of transferring or chugging slowly down Florida Avenue, stopping constantly. They don't want to deal with the crush of riders. And they would have to invent new ways to reach the new route.

"Could you imagine?" said Elshamy.

Just maybe, said Elshamy, this whole mess will somehow go away.

"The Board of County Commissioners -- I think they will do something," she said.

But the commissioners already turned down HARTline's plea for more money a few months ago.

"I think the municipality of Tampa will do something," Elshamy said.

But Mayor Dick Greco already rejected HARTline's bid for more.

"I don't think they want to see their employees go to any hardships," Elshamy said. "We're just holding out hope that they're going to do what's best."

-- Kathryn Wexler can be reached at 226-3383.

Back to Tampa Bay area news
Back

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Mary Jo Melone

Howard Troxler

Headlines
From the Times
local news desks