Bus stop

An intercity shuttlebus through town may cut evening and weekend runs if Scarborough does not step up with funds.   

SCARBOROUGH — There’s a famous political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin, the first one published in America, actually, which shows a snake split into may parts, each one labeled for one of the 13 original colonies. The caption reads simply, “Join or Die.”

Supporters of public transportation may get the point.

Despite increased ridership, rising costs mean the intercity bus that runs from Biddeford to Portland may be forced to reduce service if Scarborough does not come through with an infusion of cash.

Earlier this month, the transit committee that runs bus services for Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach held a public hearing, at which it floated the idea of cutting evening and weekend runs of its intercity service to Portland.

The shuttle averaged nearly 2,500 riders per month last year, and has added hundreds of riders each month in the current fiscal year.  However, according to service director Al Schutz, with other services, such as the interstate Zoom bus, “break even, or are close,” the intercity run is on track to lose more than $130,000.

Schutz said the plan to cut back on some runs, which go up Route 1 through Scarborough, making four separate stops in town, has been “put on the table for now.” As a stopgap, he said, Scarborough has been offered a seat on the committee for $75,000.

“We’ve been trying to get Scarborough to support the service because they are beneficiaries of that run,” Schutz said Tuesday. “It’s a zero-sum game. We’re not trying to make money. We’re just trying to break even.

“The ball’s in Scarborough’s court,” said Schutz. “If it can step up for next year [starting July 1], we might be able to limp through this year.”

There has been no shortage of people urging Scarborough town councilors to do just that.  Three pressed the council for support at its most recent meeting. Although none were Scarborough residents – they hailed from Saco, South Portland and Old Orchard Beach – there are locals who also hope to win support for the bus service.

Louise Capizzo, who works as the children’s librarian in town, has launched a letter-writing campaign to try and save the evening bus runs. She uses the service, she said, but, more importantly, so does her son Mark, who takes the bus daily from the family's Pine Point home to his job at York Manor in Biddeford.

"He has Spina bifida," said Capizzo. "He walks on crutches and does not drive. Without the bus service, he'd have to quit his job, because I cannot take him too and from work with my schedule."

Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall said he understands why, as Schutz said, “more hands on the pie would make lighter lifting for everyone.”

“To me, bus services in the region seem terribly fragmented,” he said, pointing to Portland’s Metro and South Portland’s municipal service, among others. “It really doesn’t makes sense for us to try and create another new service all our own.”

For that reason, Hall said, Scarborough has been in talks with the Biddeford/Saco/OOB transit group for “about three years.”

“Unfortunately, these conversations happened at some of the toughest times we’ve ever seen and the idea of adding $75,000 to $100,000 has never survived the budge process,” said Hall.

However, as Scarborough began what Hall called “nibbling around the edges” to understand how transit works in the Greater Portland area, it discovered that the problem with the intercity run may not be a simple case of costs vs. revenue.

“One thing he learned,” said Hall, “is that the Biddeford group “severely underbid” when it tried to capture the intercity run three years ago.

Schutz, who took the reins of the Biddeford-based transit group last September, blames the intercity service deficit on the cost of gas, health insurance, maintenance and other operating expenses.

“The fact is, it’s hemorrhaging money, it doesn’t even come close to covering costs,” said Hall. “Although Scarborough is not the cause of that problem, we are seen as part of the solution. If we were to get in the game, our money would go a long way toward plugging that deficit.”

Hall seems dubious that injecting cash from local taxpayers will go a long way toward solving systemic problems tied to the alleged underbid, but not just because it would be spending money to maintain what is, on the Scarborough tax bill at least, a free service.

“I think it comes down to the financial realities,” said Hall. “We need to reach a critical mass of users for transit to be cost effective and necessary. Looking at it from a business point of view, I don’t think were there yet.”

And, the intercity service may never get there. After all, Schutz said, “about 98 percent of all public transit services operate at a deficit.”

Still, although Hall said he doubts demand will ever rise to the level needed to extend bus services beyond the Route 1 corridor, Scarborough is open to continued talks.

One idea, he said, might be for Scarborough to offer use of its underutilized public works garage as a regional transit hub, given that both Biddeford and South Portland have facilities that, according to Hall, are “in dire need of upgrading.”

“Scarborough is the bull’s eye,” said Hall. “In my mind, that would be a good way of cementing our place because, in my mind, regional solutions are the best.”

“We can solve this together,” agreed Schutz. “Until then, I’m going to do my best, every day, to try and maximize efficiency on that run.”