Bus rider:”How are people going to get home?”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “For a place to call itself the Capitol and have bus service like this,” says Janet Delaney, bus rider. Janet Delaney says she’s been riding the bus for ten years now. “I was a student just graduated so I was on the bus every day,” says Delaney. It’s a service she relies heavily on. “Almost totally,” says Delaney. Now that she’s out job searching the recent cuts have her concerned. “Employment, getting back and forth to work cause how are you going to afford to pay a ride, a cab, whatever, that’s a big chunk of someone’s income,” says Delaney. Crandall Sims reporting, “While the buses are rolling right now, come 7:30 tonight these routes will stop and many here say they will forced to find another way home.” Other changes include cutting nearly half of the Saturday routes. Those include, Route #3 Rosewood, Route #4 Olympia/Eastway Park, Route #6 Eau Claire, Route #8 Rose Hill, Route #11 Colonial Heights and Route #36 Crosstown. That’s not all, Sunday routes have been completely cut. The weekend changes are affecting those like Samuel Berry. “For one, I’m not driving at this point in time so just the time limits that they have for us to trafvel, I have to schedule around that and it’s really hurting,” says Berry. Officials with the CMRTA says the cuts are due to budget problems and this move will help stabalize the current system and prepare for the future. But, riders aren’t happy. “I don’t understand why they say they don’t have the money I don’t understand that,” says Latriciah Hallman, bus rider. Latriciah Hallman has been riding the bus all her life and while the cuts will not directly affect her, she feels for others. “People have to work late over 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m., then after that they close down, like 6:30 p.m. so they close down at that time, how are people going to get home?,” says Hallman. For a complete list of route changes go to www.gocmrta.com