I’ve heard that rapid-transit buses are in the works for Richmond - ones with a dedicated lane and can synchronize stoplights - which seems far superior than street cars.

But they got to do something; GRTC is pressured from so many sides: Chesterfield doesn’t give them a farthing; fuel costs are on the rise; people who choose to ride the bus are looked upon as impoverished or unwashed –never thrifty and environmentally conscious, and general consensus–by those who don’t use transit and fear catching coodies — that transit ought not receive subsidy for operation, yet roads and highways require constant spending for maintenance and improvements.

This is the same kind of thinking that allowed our trolley system to first, deteriorate, and second get ripped up, paved over and burnt up in 1949, due to pressure by Goodrich Tire and Rubber and General Motors on all municipal transit systems. They formed a dummy corporation that bought up rail transit in various cities and dismantled it. They were successfully sued for monopoly in the Illinois Federal court, but, too late to do any good.

Problem in Richmond was, way back, the city allowed outsiders to own the system while Virginia Power supplied the juice. In Europe, municipalities retained ownership of their lines.

If this was a just world, the Richmond trolley system–the first in the nation and one of the first in the world–would be celebrating its 120th year in 2008.

Here is the actual notice from the website.
I for one ride the 16 line literally everyday - with 20+ other riders - and have been using that, the 13 and 6 for over four years. I’ve spoken to drivers before about the line. Less than half of the GRTC’s budget is covered by bus fares. This isn’t a money making venture here, never was. To argue that it’s unprofitable is a bit moot. They’ve tried increasing the fare before but got a lot of push back. Maybe people would be ready for it now? We got rid of one of our cars because of the 16. I would be more than happy to pay more fare than buy another effing car.

I don’t see anything in it for GRTC to cause a ruckus if the bus line is actually substantially used. Ridership might be up because of gas prices right now, but that doesn’t make ridership *good*, particularly if it was really depressed before this whole gas situation.