What's the truth about why SMART reduced[[cut?)service in Detroit??

[trotwood]

I thought I had a handle on what was going on with SMART&DDOT but after being told a couple of different stories I'm not sure anymore.
I was told by SMART the service reductions were because of financial problems within SMART. Since then I've been told different tales by different drivers.One SMART bus driver told me the cuts were because SMART simply didn't have money to continue to service Detroit full time. Another driver told me cuts were because many SMART drivers,and higher ups at SMART,didn't want to continue servicing the city on full a full time/regular schedule basis.Just last week I was told yet another version by a SMART driver.This driver told me the SMART service reductions were due to the city of Detroit not having the money to renew it's contract with SMART.
All of these stories leave me confused so I ask you,what's the truth here? Why has SMART drastically reduced it's service within the city of Detroit.
Thanks in advance.

[professorscott]

It's really pretty simple actually.

SMART's budget is heavily dependent on the sort-of-regional transit millage, paid for by many communities in Wayne County [[but not Detroit, Livonia and some others), many communities in Oakland County, and every community in Macomb County.

The millage is dependent on property values, so when property values crashed, SMART's income took a major dive. SMART raised fares to partly compenate, but the millage revenue just kept going down.

So SMART was in a position where it would have to cut its total bus operating hours per week by somewhat over 20%.

Now, the SMART routes inside Detroit are paralleled by DDOT routes. So SMART operates on Woodward; so does DDOT. SMART operates on Van Dyke; so does DDOT. And so on.

On every route outside the City of Detroit, if SMART cuts service, its riders are absolutely stranded; there is nobody remaining to give them a ride. Within Detroit, though, if SMART cuts service, DDOT exists and so people have still got the ability to get where they are going.

So cutting the service inside Detroit to peak-only times allows the majority of SMART riders to still get to where they need to get to, it is just not as convenient. But they are not stranded as riders would be on any suburban line that was cut or reduced. [[And yet it still turned out that SMART could not continue to operate all of its suburban lines, either.)

So that's basically all there was to it - they had to cut service, and did so in such a way as to strand the minimum number of people.

[trotwood]

I understood the millage portion of this[[I believe). I understand SMART&DDOT run along the same routes&many of the same streets in the city. I understand SMART,like most of us,economic troubles. I was just thrown a bit when this particular driver told me were it not for Detroit not having funds to cover it's contract with SMART SMART would still be running as it had been in&out of Detroit. To be frank that didn't sound true to me.I was hoping for some clarification as to the truth to that.
Thanks just the same Professor.I appreciate your time.