BY MATT HELMS

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


The City of Detroit is proposing another heavy round of bus service cuts that would eliminate three routes, end 24-hour service and reduce weekend trips throughout the city.

Transit advocates are working to blunt or reverse some of the Detroit Department of Transportation's planned reductions, the latest in a years-long decrease of bus routes and frequency of runs. Detroit's budget crisis, which threatens state intervention, is now pushing cuts onto some of the city's busiest bus routes.

Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United, said Friday that riders and the bus system are facing a downward spiral of reduced services she worries will only continue to damage the city's ability to provide basic public transit.

"What they're saying is, with gas prices going up, with health care and pension costs going up, and with state revenues cut and city revenues staying flat ... they just can't afford to operate at current levels," Owens said.

Continued at: http://www.freep.com/article/2011050...0348/1001/news