Commuters to protest bus service funding delay

CARTA has purchased the buses, has most of the needed funding, and has arranged to lease a park-and-ride site in the Oakbrook section of Summerville.

But don't start waiting — yet — for that express bus to downtown Charleston.

EDWARD C. FENNELL
The Post and Courier

Forty-passenger buses such as this one are part of a service operated by TriCounty Link, which provides transportation to mostly rural areas. This bus carries commuters from Summerville to the CARTA park-and-ride lot at the Super Kmart in North Charleston. Express bus advocates maintain the small bus and its limited service are not the solution.

The S.C. General Assembly has cut from its proposed budget what would have been the local match needed to get the express service started.

Summerville and Dorchester County councils say their fiscal dilemmas make even a little funding for mass transit impossible.

Some Summerville commuters who want express service are planning to make their next stop at a meeting of Summerville Town Council, followed by a stop at County Council.

Retired federal worker Reid Melton has organized a commuters' showing at the May 14 Town Council meeting, where public transportation is on the agenda.

"We've got a solid 100 contacts, and they are pretty rabid about showing up. They are activists," Melton said.

He said he's been advised by the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority that it could initiate a Summerville Express bus service for a $55,000 local match. CARTA would raise fares for the Summerville line, operating out of the Oakbrook area, to partially make up for the approximately $270,000 local match actually needed to get the service started, Melton said.

CARTA earlier said it needed about $430,000 in local matches to operate the service for a year. "We don't have that kind of money," Dorchester County Council Chairman Larry Hargett said.

"We have a very, very lean budget," he said, adding that council is looking for cuts, not new expenditures.

Melton said he hopes some of the approximately $10 million raised yearly by the 1-cent sales tax increase county voters approved in 2004 can go toward public transportation. He said that if the wording of the referendum limits revenue use to new roads and road maintenance, then a new referendum should be considered.

"It would say a percentage of revenue can be used for public transportation. It would not be a tax hike," he said.

While express service remains on hold, a network of small buses running mostly rural routes is expected to grow to include Ridgeville. Summerville and Moncks Corner are already part of the TriCounty Link bus service, which ferries passengers to and from the CARTA Express park-and-ride lot at the Super Kmart in North Charleston.

The 40-passenger TriCounty Link buses are helpful but are not the express vehicles that would solve Summerville's commuter needs, Melton said. The TriCounty buses make just one morning and one evening stop in Summerville, and even if the Ridgeville bus passes through Summerville and provides it with a second bus, the commute times are too limited and rides take too long, he said. He said not one, but two express lines are what's needed at a minimum to get many hundreds of Summerville commuters to swap their personal vehicles for mass transportation. He proposes a second route originating from Heritage Square shopping center.

CARTA Executive Director Howard Chapman said he was disappointed that the hoped-for matching funds won't come from the state Legislature, but he's still hopeful for Summerville Express service.

State Rep. Heyward Hutson, R-Summerville, said he inserted into the state's appropriations bill $1.3 million for mass transportation. The House approved it, but the Senate deleted it in late April. It's unlikely, given the state's tight financial situation, that it will be restored, he said.

He said the provision included $192,000 for the Oakbrook area park-and-ride. The funding would have been wise, Hutson insisted, because it would help take a lot of cars off Dorchester Road and would allow many commuters to save on transportation costs.

Chapman said CARTA purchased 10 used buses and budgeted funds to refurbish them for use on a Summerville express route. If the route never comes into being, the buses will find use in CARTA's other services, he said.

Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 745-5865.