FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2017

Contact:

Steve Schoeffel 217-522-6087

SMTD Night Service Changes Begin Monday, Jan. 9th

Saturday Night Service Ends; Route 904 ends; Last Night Service Trips Depart 9:45pm

Springfield, IL In November, the Springfield Mass Transit District (SMTD) Board of

Trustees, responding to delays in state payments and continued uncertainty in the state budget
moving forward, approved reductions in night service hours proposed in the previous board
meeting. Those changes will go into effect Monday, January 9th and include:

Elimination of Saturday Night Service

Elimination of Night Service Route 904
Reduction of all Night Service Monday through Friday by one hour.

Night service after the change will consist of one-hour trips at 6:45, 7:45, 8:45 and 9:45
on the current routes 901, 902, 903 and 905. The nighttime UIS Express to the west side will
continue to run Monday through Thursday at 7:15p, 8:15p, 9:15p and 10:15p. Passengers will
still be picked up at the bus shelter at Farnham and Lindsay in front of Founders Hall Bookstore.
Some perceived these cuts as SMTD reducing costs solely by reducing service, said
Steve Schoeffel, SMTD Service Planning & Marketing Specialist. In fact, these service
reductions are just one of several avenues we are exploring to reduce costs.
Over $600,000 in savings from everything from administrative contracts for items such
as office cleaning to millions in capital projects requiring hundreds of thousands in matching
local funds being put on hold are being considered. The roughly $180,000 in cost savings from
the night service reductions are less than one third of what is already being done while SMTD
awaits delayed payments and a clearer budget picture from the state. In addition, technology
improvements already approved have been scaled back to still allow for the project to move
forward without risking loss of the federal grant funding already committed, but on a longer
implementation schedule to allow SMTD more financial flexibility.
All of these measures add up to a significant amount, and, hopefully, this will get us
through for a while without further, more substantial cuts, Schoeffel added. We believe this
is the least-painful way we can reduce costs and still maintain core services moving forward.
Should the districts funding stabilize in the next few months, SMTD plans to re-evaluate
these reductions and would consider re-starting services where appropriate.
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