Although last Thursday night's transit workshop conducted by the City
of Elk Grove was billed as a means of gathering input for a comprehensive
transit analysis that is underway, most of the audience had their mind on other
transportation topics.
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The topic on the minds of the audience was what effect the
recently opened Sacramento Regional Transit’s Blue Line light rail will have on
Elk Grove's e-Tran bus system. Specifically, the audience was interested to
find out if their coveted e-Tran's commuter buses to downtown Sacramento will
be eliminated, and if a spate of recent e-Tran operational failures were a ploy
by the city to justify such a move.
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After hearing presentations from city transit manager Jean
Foletta and lead consultants Steve Wilks of IBI Group, Terry Thompson General
Manager of MV Transportation, the contract operator of Elk Grove's e-Tran bus
service also spoke to the approximate three dozen people on hand.
In her introduction of Thompson, Foletta sought to assure
riders in attendance of the city's actual intentions.
"We absolutely recognize that we been having service
challenges, we know that, we know that's not good,” Foletta said. Trust me,
there is no ploy, we've hear that from so many people, that there is some sort
of conspiracy to move our riders and passengers off of our service to light
rail, that's not the case."
When he spoke, Thompson said the service failures were the
result of driver shortages and acknowledged they were going through some
"rough patches." Thompson said once they hire drivers, and after they
gain experience, they flee for higher paying jobs with employers like
Sacramento Regional Transit.
Thompson echoed Foletta and sought to squelch the rumors
that there was a ploy to divert riders to light rail.
"I want to reassure you that we are fully
committed," Thompson said. "There is no theory on trying to move
people to light rail."
After the presentations, the audience broke into three
groups to discuss transit needs in the city. While the city sought to spark on
conversations on the entire spectrum of the city's transit needs, most
participants were most interested in discussing commuter routes.
At one table, five state government workers expressed
concern that they will be forced off existing commuter express routes to
Downtown Sacramento and compelled to use light rail. A few of the state workers
said co-workers in Folsom complained when their commuter routes were eliminated
once light rail was brought in there.
"I don't want to be like Folsom," one female
participant said. "They had it forced on them."
Among the common complaints cited by participants was if
they were compelled to use light rail commute times would substantially
increase, and female riders also noted safety concerns. Several participants
also said they believe the city has done a poor job of communicating the
possible changes.
"I am not a conspiracy theorist, but no one knows about
this," one participant said of possible route changes.
When asked if commuter routes were eliminated, would they
take their anger out at council member on next November's ballot, there was
unanimous agreement. They all said they would vote against anyone who cut the
downtown commuter express routes.
So as riders prepare for the findings of the analysis, which
are expected by March 2016, Mayor Gary Davis and Council Members
Steve Detrick and Darren Suen will undoubtedly watch voters' moods, and make
their political calculations in the time leading up to elections one year from
now.
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