Recently, I read an article about a state budget shortfall (Herald, Aug. 24) that unfairly targets the mass transit system in the southwest portion of the state. This will hugely impact Durango and the surrounding communities of Bayfield and Ignacio, as it is going to scale back transit services by at least 50 percent.
During a time of climate change, where mass transit is one of the areas that can be utilized to mitigate the disastrous effects of this anomaly, cutting public transit service is a step in the wrong direction. More importantly, many people are thinking how out of reach a new car may be, as well as how they are going to continue to get back and forth to work in Durango when the transit system they so much depended on is no longer available.
In addition, many city workers may be furloughed over this ill-conceived decision to cut these vital services. Not only is the Durango T, arguably one of the best-run public transit services that I have seen anywhere, going to be cut, but the Road Runner Transit services as well. With the Road Runner Transit cuts, people are going to lose their connection to bus and train services in Grand Junction by having the stage line shut down. People who use the Road Runner to get from Bayfield and Ignacio to Durango are going to lose their passage into town. Many of them have no access to a car and require this service to get to work.
I am hopeful that the city of Durango and SUCAP can work with the state to make sure that these vital services are not affected, and that any mitigation of budget shortfalls or accounting errors can be dealt with in a way that impacts the community much less than doing this.
Yasmina Mickas
Ignacio
