OCTA cuts schedule

Bus riders in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach are likely to feel the impact of 150,000 service hours the Orange County Transportation Authority plans to begin eliminating Sunday.

The more than $330 million budget shortfall in the next five years left OCTA with no choice other than to eliminate and split routes. In all, seven weekday, six Saturday and eight Sunday routes will be cut.

Overnight hours, 1 to 4 a.m., of the four night owl routes will also be eliminated.

“It was enormously difficult for us to have to do it, but unfortunately, we didn’t have any choice,” said Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante, chairman of the OCTA Board of Directors. “Unlike the federal government and the state government, we have to live within our means. We can’t be irresponsible to the taxpayers, and we can only provide what we can afford.”

The 150,000 hours of service cuts are the latest by the transportation authority. Since 2008, the agency reduced 400,000 hours, or 20% of its service, to close the budget gap, said OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik.

The latest cuts reduced service by 8%.

“... There’s no way you can cut 20% and not impact the people that ride the bus,” Amante said. “It’s impossible. We tried to have as little impact as we could.”

The agency relies on sales tax, bus fares and money from the state and the federal government to operate.

Since 2008, all four areas of funds have been reduced, leaving the transportation authority struggling to fill the holes.

This year, the economic downturn has reduced bus fair revenue by $10 million, Zlotnik said.

“It’s been a year like we’ve never seen before,” he said.

The state also cut $20 million from the OCTA transient assistance fund, Amante said.

“They put it into their black hole of a budget,” he said.

Amante said 70% of the people who ride the bus have no other means of transportation.

“It’s very difficult; we understand their frustration, and we feel their loss,” he said.