Service Cuts- Corona Edition

I noticed in the Press-Enterprise (twice) that the Corona Cruiser was looking to raise fares and cut services, but I never saw in the paper just when public hearings on the changes would be held. (Both articles mentioned hearings, but not times and dates.) Nor were any explicit proposals discussed, so I e-mailed Corona's transportation department about the cuts, and I got a response back yesterday.

For fare hikes, there's nothing terribly unreasonable. They generally bring their fares (currently $1.25 for general cash) in line with RTA's, which is probably only a sensible response to inflation. However, the service cuts are something else entirely. On weekdays, the Cruiser currently runs from 5am to 8pm. The current proposal slashes three hours a day of service on the system, on both the Red and Blue lines- buses would run from 6am to 6pm, a total loss of 7 Red line and 6 Blue line trips on weekdays. On Saturdays (the Cruiser doesn't provide Sunday service) it gets even worse- the bus currently runs from 8am to 6pm, and it would be pared back to run from 9am to 3:30 in the afternoon. This would make it the only transit system I know that would be incapable of handling a 9-to-5 job, on any day of the week. The Red line would lose 8 trips, and the Blue line 7 on Saturdays. Now, RTA provides service along 6th Street in Corona, on the workhorse Route 1 seven days a week, but the southern portions of Corona are 5 miles or more away from 6th Street. Route 3 also serves Corona, but once again, only the northern portion- it turns around just south of Corona Regional Medical Centre at 10th Street, still inside the circle of Grand Blvd. This move would leave substantial swaths of the city of Corona without access to public transportation past 3 in the afternoon on Saturday.

The public hearings on this issue will be held on May 13th at the Corona City Library, once at 10am and again at 6:30pm. I'll post the official details of the service cuts as soon as I find some file space to host them- they're large PDF files.