CINCINNATI — The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority and Cincinnati Public Schools are at odds over a proposal that would change bus service for thousands of Cincinnati students.

What You Need To Know

  • SORTA announced earlier this week that it plans to eliminate Metro's XTRA Service

  • The program is for students in the seventh through 12th grades

  • Under a new plan, students would now catch a bus along regular Metro routes

SORTA announced earlier this week that it plans to eliminate Metro's XTRA Service. XTRA Service provides direct routes to public and private secondary schools across the city.

The program is for students in the seventh through 12th grades. About 6,000 CPS students use those routes every day, according to the school district.

SORTA said in a statement that the plan was "mutually determined" over the past month as part of an annual service review with CPS.

"After spending the last few weeks understanding the impact of these changes and exploring other potential solutions, we are deeply concerned about the negative consequences these proposed changes will have on Cincinnati students and families who rely on Metro for transportation to and from school," CPS interim Superintendent Tianay Amat wrote in a letter to SORTA CEO Darryl Haley on Wednesday.

Amat asked Haley to reconsider the plan before the start of the school year. The changes will take effect Sunday, Aug. 15, four days before the new school year begins.

CPS pays roughly $8 million a year to Metro for special passes used by eligible students, she said.

"The XTRA routes supplement Metro’s regular routes, prevent overcrowding, and provide a safer environment for the transportation of students. Because of their benefits, CPS pays SORTA more per student to provide this service," Amat said.

Under the new plan, students would now catch a bus along regular Metro routes. That's how the systems in Dayton and Columbus work as well.

Route realignments and more frequent stops at schools would keep the system "reliable," SORTA said in a statement. They said the average travel time would decrease by 10 minutes.

The plan also calls for longer running hours during the school week and new Saturday hours, which will make it easier for students to get to extracurriculars or after-school jobs, SORTA said. All career and technical program students will now be eligible for a CPS pass as well.

SORTA said the service changes are partially rooted in the fact they're short on drivers right now. The organization is in the middle of an aggressive hiring campaign.

"CPS does not believe that elimination of XTRA routes is an acceptable resolution to SORTA's bus driver shortage," Amat wrote. "Elimination of the XTRA routes may resolve an operating challenge for SORTA, but it does so at the expense of Cincinnati's students and families and without due consideration of the true impact on their daily lives."

Amat stressed safety concerns with the new plan. She sees bus-loading at school dismissal becoming a major issue. She's also worried about the roughly 2,000 seventh- and eighth-graders who will have to change buses mid-trip on their way to and from school.

The new plan does decrease the number of two-transfer trips from about 400 students to 0, SORTA said.

SORTA will host a public meeting Thursday, Aug. 5, to discuss proposed changes. The presentation will also be live-streamed on Metro’s Facebook page. 

Metro representatives also plan to attend school orientations once the school year begins.