Five years ago, during my career as a media specialist for the Erie County Legislature, I became involved with a group of citizens and government officials lobbying for the establishment of an NFTA bus route along Route 62 in the Southtowns.
The call for the public transportation was largely based on the fact that a significant percentage of the population living between Hamburg and Gowanda exist at a socio economic level that makes ownerhsip of a car prohibitive. Therefore a number of people in southern Erie County struggle to maintain jobs, attend school and receive medical treatments, as they have no way to travel to any of those destinations.
During the many public and committee meetings held on this issue, the NFTA willingly mapped out the lenghty bus route and meticulously charted the most effective run times. They also acknowledged that due to the 20 plus mile distance of the route, it would probably never be cost effective. Yet, they agreed that the route was an important link for the southtowns community and a needed public service, as is their federally funded mandate.
Since the route was established, a regular ridership has developed, including students attending Erie Community College, corrections officers working at the Gowanda Correctional Facility and riders making connections to destinations well beyond the southtowns, such as downtown Buffalo. And as the NFTA forecast, the ridership has not come anywhere close to balancing the costs.
And so I wonder why all of a sudden the NFTA is suggesting that the Route 62 bus route is in danger of being eliminated….especially when it has only been running for two years…not really long enough to develop a significant ridership pattern. NFTA officials knew the terms when they signed on, and they accepted those terms in full.
Perhaps eliminating transportation that primarily serves the working class is easily done because they do not have a power base, political or otherwise, to lobby on their behalf. And lacking that power base, perhaps the people who ride the Route 62 bus are nothing more than faceless, nameless numbers on a statistical ridership graph, thumb tacked to an NFTA bulletin board…in other words, easily eliminated.
Thursday evening at ECC South Erie County Legislator Lynn Dixon will hold a public hearing on this issue. Based on the 7pm start time, bus transportation will not be available, as by then the Route 62 bus will have completed its final run for the day. So the people who most need to attend this hearing and lobby on behalf of the bus route most likely will not be there.
In their stead, perhaps those of us blessed with the good fortune to own cars will show up at ECC South tomorrow night….take an hour from our busy lives and speak for those who cannot….stand up for those who are in need….help to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors who need the Route 62 bus route to complete their education, earn a living, attend to their health care needs.
And if that happens, perhaps the NFTA will learn that dollars and cents are not the only measure of true value in a community that cares.