Citing "low ridership and productivity," regional transit officials plan to shut down a bus route that serves Grantville, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, San Diego State University, parts of San Carlos and La Mesa.
The Metropolitan Transit System will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 16 to consider whether to eliminate MTS Route 14. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the 12th & Imperial Transit Center.
Among the dozens of changes MTS is now considering, the elimination of Route 14 has generated the most opposition, primarily due to the loss of service along Zion Avenue in Allied Gardens, according to an MTS staff report.
Route 14 starts at the Grantville trolley station, stops at the Mission San Diego trolley station and then heads north to Friars Road to Mission Gorge Road to Zion Avenue, where it stops at the Kaiser hospital. The route continues along Zion Avenue to Waring Road, where it turns north and follows the road as it becomes College Avenue. After stopping at the SDSU Transit Center, the route turns on Montezuma Road to El Cajon Boulevard and turns north on 70th Street with a stop at the 70th Street trolley station before it returns to Lake Murray Boulevard, heading north toward the Lake Murray Village shopping center at Baltimore Drive and Lake Murray Boulevard.
Route 14 is the lowest-performing regular, fixed route among MTS bus lines, according to MTS staff.
When the route was first established in 2005, it provided service from Old Town to Grossmont seven days a week, but the route has been reduced several times since then. The route now operates hourly on weekdays only.
Despite earlier cuts that reduced the cost of operating the route, it still ranks last among MTS bus routes in terms of number of passengers per hour, farebox recovery rate and subsidy per passenger, the MTS staff report said.
"With levels of service already low, there are few options for further reductions, and none that staff believe would improve performance to near that of similar MTS routes," the report said.
The Jan. 16 hearing is for informational and feedback purposes only. Staff will make adjustments based on discussions at the hearing and will bring back a final proposal for approval by the MTS Board of Directors in February. The earliest changes would take place in June 2014.
