Due in part to the rising cost of gasoline, more people are riding Manchester's city buses.
But the city’s budget is tight this year and that bus system faces deep cuts.
NHPR Correspondent Ellen Grimm reports.
Manchester bus driver Venise Chretien knows a little bit about a lot of people.
Chretien drives the number 3 bus around Manchester.
Her route includes businesses, the airport, apartment complexes, and colleges.
She’s been driving buses for 26 years.
Sound up.
On Tuesday, Venise Chretien's #3 bus was dropping people off at their jobs.
Neil Lavin cooks at an airport restaurant.
LAVIN: I just bought a house, and because I just bought that house I wouldn't have enough money to buy a car, insurance, any of that. So it's pretty important for me to be able to catch the bus every morning, and that's what I do every morning.
These days, Chretien's 6:30 a.m. departure from downtown Manchester is in doubt.
The city's transit system is facing budget cuts, as the mayor attempts to keep taxes low and the city deals with diminished revenues.
To meet the mayor's budget, Transit officials are looking at layoffs, a fare increase, and eliminating nearly 50 percent of their service.
In their alternative budget now moving forward, Aldermen Mike Lopez and Ted Gatsas have kept in tact Guinta's cuts to the MTA.
LOPEZ: They're supposed to sustain themselves and come to the city and ask for subsidies to help a bit but they're supposed to be sort of an enterprise. That's sort of a big thing. And I know they have a hard job. Mr. Smith is an excellent manager. It's just choices.
Gatsas proposed that the MTA use money reserved for the school bus system to make up its shortfall. But David Smith, who heads the Manchester Transit Authority, said that idea would cause other problems.
Smith says any cuts would hurt all sorts of people who live in the city.
SMITH: Most people are going to and from work -- 42 percent are traveling to and from work. 22 percent are traveling to and from a shopping trip. 13 percent to school and 9 percent for medical appointments.
According to the American Public Transport Association, ridership on all forms of public transportation is at its highest point in 50 years.
The increase is fed by high gas prices.
Smith says Manchester's buses are also serving more people -- in part because of route changes made last July.
SMITH: ...And also the economic times -- gas prices and whatnot, our ridership had gone up since July close to 10 percent. In March it was up 16 percent over last year.
At a recent public hearing on the issue, bus riders packed the Aldermanic chambers to address Smith and MTA commissioners.
Many were in wheelchairs.
And many favored fare increases higher than those proposed in exchange for cutbacks in services.
One person objected to raising taxes to pay for MTA services.
But most described their dependency on the city buses.
HEARING SOUNDS:
Russ Cloyd is plant manager at E&R Cleaners. He spoke on behalf of his employees.
CLOYD: They start taking the bus from the first run and they take it at the last run. That's 33 percent of my work force that take the bus. By cutting the routes down greatly affects their ability to get to work and our ability to meet the demands of our customers, which a lot of them are here in Manchester.
For NHPR News in Manchester, I'm Ellen Grimm
