Amador County – Amador Regional Transit System made cuts in its bus routes last week, with the aim of saving money in the name of common sense. ARTS Executive Director James Means said that last week’s service changes included “realigning of routes and the times to catch all the people that are going to be affected.” And vanpooling and voucher programs are 2 other modes that will make up for the shortfall. He said ARTS will also “be adding back some routes, as long as they will be self-sustaining.” They also added an express route, between Jackson and Sutter Creek. And he is working on routes with businesses and vintners. He was also planning to meet Wednesday with the Sutter Creek Business & Professional Association about stay-and-ski trip packages with local bed & breakfast lodges, including ski passes and shuttle bus tickets to Kirkwood Ski Resort. Means said ARTS is working on handling lost routes with a voucher system and with a new program of “vanpooling.” Vanpooling, made possible with funding from the Amador County Air District, is operated by Foothill Rideshare, and is organizing van rides in the county. Means said vanpools, with 5-7 people, include a designated driver and will become ARTS routes, once they start to operate. In the face of falling revenue, the ARTS board of directors last week approved cutting 13 bus routes in the system, and realigning other routes to make up for redundancies. Of those, one route to River Pines was eliminated and replaced with a “voucher program.” Means said: The River Pines route “has one customer. It’s cheaper for me to put the guy in a taxi than to send a bus all the way out to get him.” Means said Pine Grove routes were eliminated because of low rider counts, but the area is still served with bus routes. The riders must simply catch an earlier or later bus. The same happened with elimination of some Jackson shuttle routes, which were not used. Means said that some of those routes were extended to cover areas visited by the cut routes. So the riders are still served at those stops, and bus drivers are more efficient because they do not drive around with empty busses. Instead of covering stops 3 times, they go to them twice. Means said the cuts eliminated redundancy, and removing routes with no passengers had a “zero-sum effect.” Another ARTS route returns December 19th with the first Saturday Kirkwood shuttle bus. ARTS surveys will see if riders’ needs are being met with the new schedules. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.