FAST bus slated to be discontinued

Fallbrook’s abysmal public transit service may get worse in August 2008 when the North County Transit District plans to discontinue its FAST bus service.

FAST is the blue and white dial-a-ride jitney bus that scoots around Fallbrook allowing seniors, people who can’t drive, and those with no car to run errands to the grocery stores, post office, and to doctor appointments.

If the FAST bus service is discontinued, people like long-time resident Helen Gruver, 90, will be cut adrift. She is visually impaired and lives alone. Fiercely independent, Gruver says “I won’t bother my neighbors. It’s all right once in a while; more would be pesky.” Gruver has been riding the FAST bus for five years. Last week she took two trips, but even for a young person with perfect vision, it’s a chore. Riders must call the day before to arrange a pick-up, thus eliminating any last-minute runs into town for a forgotten grocery item.

New resident, Edna Killery, 80, says a similar service in Bullhead City, Arizona where she formerly lived, started out small, like the FAST bus’s limited service, but ultimately became a thriving business.

“I’m very disappointed about this,” Killery says. She has a car and a license but doesn’t want to drive nor get on a freeway. She depends on her daughter for transportation, being new in Fallbrook, but says as she becomes part of the community she wants to be on her own. Relying on the FAST bus was part of her plan.

Each woman insists the FAST bus fare is too low. “I don’t feel they are charging enough,” Killery claims. A one-way fare is one dollar. Even if the fares increase, Tom

Kelleher, the Marketing and Communications Manager for the North County Transit District (NCTD), says it won’t be enough.

While fares contribute 22 percent of their revenue, eight cents on every dollar for the FAST bus compared to 40 cents for the Coaster, it’s not fares the service runs on. It’s a combination of funding, mostly derived from the state. For the past five years, Kelleher says the governor has raided the public transportation funding to move to the general

fund. “He says he’ll pay it back, but he never does,” Kelleher says. In addition to the published funding source, says Kelleher, there is also a “spillover account,” the result of legislation which stipulates when gas prices go up, the accompanying sales tax “spills” over into public transportation. This year, the governor took 50 percent of that money, and last year 100 percent. Bottom line, regardless of the need, there isn’t enough money to continue providing all the service now offered. Just to maintain what services they can afford, NCTD will propose to their board on May 12 reducing service and raising fares.

Without the FAST bus, Fallbrook people have only two options: the Healthcare Foundation CARE Van and Fallbrook Taxicab, a for-profit business. While these two alternatives are good, the CARE Van isn’t always available, even when riders try to book a few days in advance because the organization is in need of more volunteers to serve as drivers and the Fallbrook Taxicab charges $4.50 for the first mile, and $2.50 for each mile thereafter. Teresa Harsha, who owns the company with her husband, says many of their in-town trips are less than a mile, however, and the resulting fare less than $4.50. Further, Fallbrook Taxicab offers ten percent off their rates to seniors and disabled individuals, and pre-purchased script at a greater discount

Fallbrook isn’t the only community losing their FAST bus service. Ramona, Encinitas, and Vista are also slated to have the FAST bus discontinued.

The proposal before the NCTD board will be a public meeting, May 12 at the Escondido City Hall. For information about attending to voice concerns about discontinuing the FAST bus call Tom Kelleher at (760) 967-2862.

Editor’s Note: If you would like to volunteer your help at the Fallbrook Healthcare Foundation CARE Van service, please call (760) 723-8182.