COVINGTON — Proposed TANK schedule changes — especially evening and weekend cuts — would cause many Northern Kentuckians to lose their jobs and their independence, regular riders told TANK officials Tuesday.

FEEDBACK

• What: Proposed changes to TANK schedules.     • When: TANK schedule changes would take effect Sept. 14. A decision on some or all of the proposed cuts could come as soon as tonight's TANK board of directors meeting at 3375 Madison Pike in Fort Wright.     • Where to send comments: Call the TANK Passenger Feedback Line at (859) 814-2138, fax (859) 578-6952 or e-mail info@tankbus.org. A summary of the proposed changes is on TANK buses or available by calling (859) 814-2138. Copies also will be available at TANK's Fort Wright headquarters or by visiting www.tankbus.org.

        Older people who depend on TANK for transportation said that cutting evening and weekend service on routes serving Ludlow, Newport and Fort Thomas would make it difficult for them to shop at the grocery, attend church or have a social life.

        “It would be like cutting off my legs,” said everyday rider Betsy Prince of Bellevue, who doesn't drive and has depended on buses to get around since World War II.

        If service is reduced on routes 11 and 16 in Campbell County, Sharon Lee Yelton, 53, of Fort Thomas predicted that she would lose her 3-year-old job doing laundry at the Embassy Suites in Covington.

        And Steve Gilligan, who heads a rehabilitation center for 60 homeless veterans at the Veterans Affairs Fort Thomas division, said reduction of service on the airport express 1Route 2X as well as routes 11 in Fort Thomas and 16 in Newport would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the nondriving veterans at the VA facility to hold jobs.

        “What's available now is barely adequate,” Mr. Gilligan said of existing bus service. “Some of these cuts could have a real catastrophic effect.”

        About 22 people, many of them holding their TANK bus passes, spoke against the proposed schedule changes at the first of two public hearings Tuesday at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center.

        TANK has proposed changes on all but five of its 33 routes. Five routes — the NKU River Run, Route 24X Crestview Express, Route 26 Grant's Lick, Route 31X Hands Pike Express and Route 36 Wilder — would be eliminated because of poor ridership.

        Buses also would run less frequently on eight other routes, and evening and weekend service or portions of routes would be cut on most of the other routes. RAMP, TANK's door-to-door services for people with disabilities, would not be eliminated, but it would not be expanded, as originally planned.

        “In order to implement (the proposed cuts) by mid-September, we would have to make a decision by the 20th of this month,” said Mark Donaghy, TANK's general manager.

        TANK officials say the proposed cuts are necessary largely because Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties reduced TANK's budget request for the current fiscal year by $1.5 million, or 15 percent.

        The counties — citing Kenton County's inability to give only a modest increase because of an ongoing legal dispute over its payroll tax — gave an 8.1 percent increase, instead of the 24 percent increase sought by TANK.

        Other factors driving the proposed cuts include insurance costs “that have gone through the roof” since Sept. 11, and the loss of state matching dollars for capital improvements such as the purchase of buses, prompting the local match to double to 20 percent, said Gina Douthat, TANK's communications director.
       

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