People Mover to pump brakes on bus service

The Municipality of Anchorage recently announced it would reduce People Mover bus service, with changes taking effect Oct. 28. It proposed two potential sets of changes.

“Option A” would reduce services to neighborhood routes 31, 35, 41, 51, 55 and 65 from 30 minutes to once an hour. Routes 10, 20 and 30 would also be reduced from every 15 minutes to 17 minutes under this proposed option.

“Option B” would decrease the frequency of route 25, the busiest People Mover route, from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes, but the frequency of the other routes would remain as they are.

The Northern Light spoke with Jonny Ray — a freshman in UAA’s social work program who regularly rides the People Mover to the University — about his thoughts on the proposed changes. 

Ray was at a bus stop near the university when The Northern Light approached him for the interview. He said this was the first he had heard of the proposed changes.

He expressed his concern about the future for bus riders.

“When you hear 'People Mover,' that’s Anchorage,” said Ray. “You can cut any department, but when you cut public transit, it’s a problem,” he said.

He said that before the municipality increased bus service earlier this year, wait times stretched up to two hours on some routes.

“If they cut it again, winter time is going to be rough,” said Ray. “There’s going to be more suffering.”

Ray said he has been riding the bus for over a year and that last winter was very difficult for commuters due to extreme weather, but improved when the municipality increased route frequency.

“If they keep it ramped up it’ll help students and people going to work,” said Ray.

Ray also said he believes if the municipality’s goal is to hire more bus drivers, they should receive fair workplace treatment.

“Those guys do an amazing job,” said Ray. 

Bart Rudolph, the public transportation planning and communications manager for the Municipality of Anchorage, spoke at a Public Transit Advisory Board meeting about why People Mover workforce shortages were occurring. The meeting took place at the Loussac Library on July 11.

Rudolph said multiple factors have contributed to the workforce shortages People Mover is experiencing.

“We have a hard time filling the vacancies of bus operators because we require [applicants] to have a CDL license with a passenger endorsement and one year experience,” said Rudolph. 

He also said the population of individuals in Anchorage who can fulfill the bus operator qualification requirements has diminished over time, decreasing the number of applicants for the position.

Rudolph spoke about challenges current People Mover employees have faced, which have had an impact on bus routes.

Rudolph said regular life events, such as getting sick, impede routine bus routes. “You know, and this is not to blame any operator — it's just, we all get sick. We all have child care issues; we all get hurt or injured,” said Rudolph.

After explaining the two proposed plans for bus service reduction to members of the public who attended the meeting, Rudolph said, “So obviously this is not something that we want to do. We have big plans to grow this department, but we just simply can't do that without a workforce.”

People Mover is asking members of the community to give their input on the proposed changes to bus service until August 5.