Group battles TriMet cutbacks

New 'riders union' to lobby for changes, alternative funding

By merry mackinnon

The Portland Tribune, Jun 4, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (19 Reader comments)

L.E. BASKOW / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Al Bradbury (left) and Xander Dunlap are members of the new Portland Transit Riders Union, a grassroots group formed to fight TriMet budget cuts.

Dennis Priebe has no income, walks with a cane, lives downtown in a subsidized apartment and relies on food stamps. He worries how he’ll pay for trips to the grocery store if TriMet eliminates Fareless Square.

Judy Ridenour never learned to drive a car and purchased her Southeast Portland house because it’s close to an express commuter bus stop. But in three months, that bus line will cease to exist, so Ridenour will set her alarm an hour ahead and then transfer from the bus to the MAX to get to her job in Lloyd District.

Stuart Fishman lives in Raleigh Hills, works nights at a grocery store and doesn’t own a car. He commutes by bus, but it will no longer run on weekend evenings, so Fishman has arranged to borrow a car.

On May 27, after three months of public input, TriMet’s board of directors approved cuts to bus and MAX light rail service. Effective Sept. 13, the cuts will eliminate four bus lines, significantly change 20 bus lines, discontinue 15 bus lines’ weekend service and reduce service to other bus lines. MAX line service reductions will begin Aug. 30.

TriMet officials also are debating whether to drop Portland’s Fareless Square — the fare-free zone that covers downtown and parts of inner Northeast Portland around the Rose Quarter and Lloyd Center. And the transit agency is considering more cuts if the economy doesn’t improve soon.

But the cuts are no longer coming without organized opposition; TriMet’s recent moves have spurred the creation of a grassroots group calling itself the Portland Transit Riders Union. Its goal: to get TriMet to expand service, lower fares, democratize decisions and stop laying off transit workers.

Members of the transit riders union, formed after TriMet’s February announcement of proposed cutbacks in bus and MAX service, gathered to protest the cuts at Pioneer Courthouse Square following the TriMet board’s May 27 meeting. They held signs that read “Defend Public Transportation” and “Tax the CEOs — Save TriMet.”

The group spells out its concerns in flyers members handed out to passersby — stating that service cuts disproportionately hurt low-income people who rely on public transportation, particularly those working nights and swing shifts.

“These are hard times,” said Al Bradbury, one of the transit riders union’s founders. “TriMet should be expanding service, not cutting it.”

TriMet doesn’t argue that point.

“We agree with them. We’d love to be expanding service,” said TriMet Communications Director Mary Fetsch. “They should lobby Salem. They should lobby Congress.”

That’s what they intend to do, said transit riders union leaders — lobby for funding alternatives for mass transit, including corporate tax increases, higher income taxes on the wealthy, less spending on highways and more on public transportation.

The group also wants TriMet’s fare hikes rolled back. And it’s pushing to change TriMet’s seven-member board. The board should be elected, not appointed by the governor, as is the case, said Portland Transit Riders Union co-founder Tim Koch.

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