For the week of July 22 thru July 28, 1998  

John Pluntze boarded a KART bus near the Ranch at Elkhorn at 7:55 a.m. Friday. ‘I think they ought to consider better alternatives, like smaller buses or requests to stop like KART sometimes does in the winter,’ Pluntze said. "I don’t think the city council knows how many people rely on the bus to get to work.’

KART cuts hours, employees

New times for summer and slack


By KATHRYN BEAUMONT
Express Staff Writer

 

During slack, those who ride the KART buses to get to their 8 a.m. jobs will no longer be able to do so.

Starting Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day, KART will cut its slack service hours. Buses will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week. Old slack hours were from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.

Under the new slack schedule, the first KART bus of the day will be on the road by 8:20, said KART manager Terry Crawford.

Crawford said the reason for the cuts was that the cities of Ketchum and Sun Valley were concerned about empty buses. In the coming fiscal year, the cities will decrease their contributions to KART, with Ketchum giving $389,000 and Sun Valley, $260,000.

Sun Valley city administrator Bob Van Nort said taxpayers shouldn’t be expected to pay for empty buses.

Using a new rider-tracking system, a KART committee studied the numbers of users during slack and high-season hours.

They discovered that ridership during early morning slack hours wasn’t enough to justify service before 8 a.m.

The new KART hours apply only to the slack and summer schedules. Winter operations of KART will remain from 7 a.m. until midnight. Summer service for 1999, however, will be decreased. Instead of a 7 a.m. through midnight schedule, buses will run from 8 a.m. until midnight, or possibly even 11 p.m., Crawford said.

A consequence of the decrease in service hours is a decrease in employee time. Two of the four KART bus drivers will be cut during slack. They will be considered seasonal employees instead of full-time employees. A KART board subcommittee will determine how this shift in employment will affect the seasonal employees’ salaries and benefits.

The savings from the cuts in service and employee hours will be placed in a contingency fund to be used for unexpected costs such as a new bus motor or if heavy snowfall causes the mountain to open a few weeks early or close a few weeks late, Crawford said.

At the end of the fiscal year, any money left in the contingency fund would be placed in a capital reserve, Crawford said.

 

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