As TriMet proposes to reduce services to address a $300 million budget shortfall, Tualatin’s mayor is blasting the possible elimination or reduction of service to several bus routes that traverse the city.
In a letter sent to TriMet’s general manager and members of the board of directors Wednesday, Jan 21, Mayor Frank Bubenik strongly objected to proposed bus line changes.
Among those changes are:
- The elimination of Line 97, which provides service along Tualatin-Sherwood Road between the Tualatin WES Commuter Rail station and Sherwood Plaza, a retail center that includes businesses such as Ross Dress for Less, Dollar Tree and the recently opened Chick-fil-A. TriMet has the line on the chopping block due to low ridership, according to the agency’s website.
- Stops between Legacy Meridian Park Hospital and Oregon City Transit Center via Line 76 and crosses the Tualatin Food Pantry and the Borland Free Clinic.
- Restructuring Line 96 — which enters the city at Southwest Lower Boones Ferry Road and connects to Plambeck Gardens, a 116-unit affordable housing complex in Tualatin’s rapidly developing Basalt Creek area, and the future Basalt Creek Employment Zone, which is expected to create almost 2,000 new jobs once a planned manufacturing park is up and running.
- The elimination of Line 37, which connects the Tualatin Park and Ride with the Lake Oswego Transit center.
- Shortening and adjusting Line 38 to run between the Tualatin Park and Ride and the Barbur Transit Center. Line 38 service would be replaced with service by Line 96 on McNary Parkway.
- In his letter to the public transit agency, Bubenik said he had “grave concerns about the disproportionate and severe impacts these cuts will have on Tualatin residents and businesses, particularly our most vulnerable community members.”
Vulnerable communities will be affected by change
Bubenik said the potential issues he sees with the laundry list of TriMet changes would make traveling without a vehicle more difficult near some of Tualatin’s affordable housing developments and business hubs…