Riders have had their say; now the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit authority is making more changes in the county’s redesigned bus service.
With limited public resources, the HART leadership team announced earlier this year they would redesign its bus network, cutting service from low-performing routes and transition to providing more service in areas with higher demand.
Officials then turned to the public, taking input from riders over the past few months, before the recent unveiling of a new network.
Inevitably, those changes resulted in winners and losers, and those unhappy with some of the proposed transit cuts spoke out at the first public hearing that HART held on the new routes last week.
That led to an overflow crowd of 150 people, who crammed into HART’s third-floor board meeting, ready to voice their opinions on the new routes.
HART management now says that they have loud and clear from their riders, and after reviewing those public comments, have made some revisions to the redesigned network map. They caution, though, that they cannot accommodate all the requested changes.
Those revisions to the original redesigned network can now be found on the agency’s website.
The HART board of directors will vote on the final plan for the redesigned bus network plan at their next board meeting, scheduled for Monday at 9 a.m. If approved, the proposal would be scheduled for implementation Sunday, Oct. 8.
Because another large crowd is expected, that meeting has been moved to the County Center, 615 E. Kennedy Blvd.