Transportation system trying to find ways to make up deficit.
Joe Calabrese talks with WTAM's Darren Toms
(Cleveland) - With a national economy causing economic challenges, fewer people are taking public transportation in the Cleveland area.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority says riders of buses and transit trains dropped 14% in April and almost 21% in May.
The transit authority in Ohio’s most populated county pegs the decline on unemployment and a continuous decline in Cuyahoga County’s population.
More than 60% of all RTA rides are made by people going back and forth to work.
General Manager Joe Calabrese says their sales tax revenue to be down $15 to $16 million this year. That's RTA's main revenue stream.
Calabrese says they've already implemented 3% salary cuts, and will look at possible reducing routes. But he says that's what they'll try hardest to avoid.
RTA held a public hearing Tuesday on the budget, which needs to be done by the end of July.
(Copyright © 2009 Clear Channel and The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
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