Everyone agrees that the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority isn’t in a good place, including its administrator, Kathleen Lambert.
“What I'm hearing about, Josh, is people who are trying to get out of work, and their bus just doesn't come because they didn't realize it was canceled, facing walking in the cold temperatures that we've had in last month and trying to get home,” she told WAMC.
The BRTA is one of the 15 regional transit authorities across Massachusetts, with its main headquarters set in Pittsfield in the heart of the county. Its fleet of buses and vans service the vast and thinly populated expanse of the Berkshires, an almost 1,000-square-mile area with over 30 individual communities.
“We don't want to leave anybody stranded out on a route who needs that bus ride," said Lambert. "And I want them to get a reliable service, something they can depend on.”
To that end, the BRTA put forward a proposal this winter to cut back on some bus services to make the remaining routes more consistent and reliable. This included hits to its weekday Route 1 connector between Pittsfield and North Adams, Route 2 service between Pittsfield and Lee, and less evening service to Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield.
“The changes are based on operational issues, not that we want to revise the service in any way, particularly because we are short of drivers," explained Lambert. "So, we're short by a lot. We need five more, at least, to run the service. 10 would be best to cover days off, family emergencies, sick time.”
This month, the BRTA’s advisory board chose to delay a vote to approve the changes in the face of community outcry.
“As somebody who relies on the bus and takes it frequently, I think it's a terrible thing for our region. It will stymie economic growth, and it will also be a huge hindrance to a lot of students who rely on the bus to get out to BCC and take college classes," said Ashley Shade, the City Council President of North Adams, Berkshire County’s second largest community located about 20 miles north of Pittsfield. “The way the proposal has been made, the proposed cuts are specifically to the furthest distance places rather than the local routes, and that creates a burden on the lowest income and the most marginalized communities, as far as getting around, getting to doctor's appointments, getting to work, and it's going to be a real burden.”
Some public transit advocates say the issue goes much deeper, and that the BRTA is already headed down the wrong path.
“The problem is that the changes have already been made. The service has already been drastically cut. It has been declining for the last two years. The efforts to improve it have been, to my mind, misguided, misplaced priorities," said Karen Christensen, the founder of the Train Campaign, an effort to reestablish passenger rail access between New York, Pittsfield, Boston and Albany. “The response has been to deny that there's any other problem and simply to start cutting routes, while at the same time adding new, completely new service out to Greenfield and Northampton.”
She says a functional, effective bus system is crucial to the broader regional effort.
“These services are really important for the last mile for us, bringing trains from New York or Boston here," Christensen told WAMC. "But there are dependent riders here right now, people who don't have cars, who are working here, who have jobs in the service industries that are the primary economic driver here, and healthcare workers, and they depend on these services, and they have been poorly managed, poorly run, and many of them, those lines are not running right now. So, calling it a realignment is a putting lipstick on a pig, as far as I'm concerned.”
Lambert says the focus on cuts to BRTA routes has distracted from other efforts the agency is making to improve service in Berkshire County – like the new Route 999.
“We're introducing a new all county express ride that goes from North Adams to Great Barrington all day, and that is to provide coverage for the for the missing trips on Route 1 and Route 2," she said. "But the good thing about this express bus is it's a 45-minute ride to from Pittsfield to North Adams, and it's a 45-minute ride from Pittsfield to Great Barrington.”
The BRTA is also working on a cooperative program with Berkshire Community College to create a commercial driver's license training center using a bus driving simulator it obtained through a grant.
“We'll be placing that unit over with BCC and supporting the CDL training program, not only with a trainer from here, we're providing them with a bus to train on, and we're also providing them with funds to help support some of the scholarships needed for that program," said Lambert. "So, we're trying to expand our reach into the community to provide driving training, not only for us, but for other needs, like, for example, DPW departments from every city in town in Berkshire [are] starving for a CDL-qualified person.”
The vote on the proposed changes to BRTA service will come back before its advisory board on March 26 to allow for more public comment and for administrators to meet with communities which will be impacted by the cuts.
“Unfortunately, Josh, we're not going to hire new drivers between now and the 26th," said Lambert. "And the reality is we would like to make sure that our service is reliable so that people can count on it, and until we have enough staff to fill to fill the service, we're not going to be able to do that.”
Public comment will be accepted on the BRTA route change proposal until March 21.
