New service enhancements rolling out Nov. 17 significantly enhance night and weekend service and were only possible through a healthy balanced budget and savings.
Thanks to a continued internal cost-cutting effort, HART staff slashed expenses. Now those savings can be proactively reinvested into HART services to provide the first enhancements of this kind since 2007. "We are pleased to be able to provide the community a balanced budget which has a planned increase of service hours to our riders," said Jeff Seward, HART chief financial officer. "That includes new late night, midday, and weekend service on some of our key routes. All of that was achieved through strong fiscal stewardship yielding over $1.2 million of savings."
No rerouting or route adjustments had to be made, and current service levels were all maintained while HART concentrates on innovative ways to further increase ridership and provide additional enhancements.
Throughout the year, HART planners assess route productivity and update bus routes every spring, summer and fall based on improving safety and efficiency, ridership demands and trends, and customer feedback. Routes were picked based upon demonstrated ridership and input via the Customer Service database.
All of these enhancements come at no extra cost to taxpayers and HART customers because of HART's commitment to saving money without compromising service.
