By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Board of Finance on Tuesday night cut in half requested 2022-23 funding for the Wheels2U Westport train station shuttle service.

Many people spoke in favor of full funding, but several board members expressed concerns about low ridership on the on-demand buses, which the Westport Transit District operates with large town and state subsidies.

The transit cut was made as the finance board went through the town side of the proposed municipal budget for the new fiscal year, which stands at $223.8 million.

The panel approved all other line items in the spending plan, except for an extra $600,000 for town retiree health care costs. That also was cut in half.

After the Board of Finance completes action on the budget package, it moves on to the Representative Town Meeting for final action prior to the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.

Shuttle funding request halved

The transit district had requested $343,200, $266,000 of which would be allocated for Wheels2U. The RTM, in recent years during its budget review, has restored funding for the Transit District each time it was sliced by finance board.

The Board of Finance, after a lengthy discussion Tuesday, unanimously approved funding $133,000 for the commuter shuttle service, only half the requested amount.

Member Brian Stern said that would give the town time to devise a new a transit strategy before the Wheels2U funding expired.

Too few riders, too much traffic

Board Chairwoman Sheri Gordon said the board supports the transit district’s other programs that provide rides for the elderly and disabled. But, she said, the door-to-door train station shuttles are a problem.

“It sounds like a good idea, to have a shuttle service so that we can take cars off the road and transport people to the train station,” she said. “When we look at what’s actually happening in practice, 87 percent of the time it is only a single rider on a 15-person bus.”

“Unfortunately,” Gordon added, “these are not electric buses, these are gas buses, and this is not helping traffic, this is actually creating more traffic.

“It’s bigger vehicles and it’s creating more problems on our roads.”

Budget tug-of-war revisited

Board member James Foster said the yearly debate is like watching ping pong. 

“We go back and forth, and here we are, once again, back in that same mode where my guess is there’ll be a vote, and it’ll be a restoration” of funding by the RTM, he said.

“And the RTM will yell at the Board of Finance, and the Board of Finance will yell at the RTM, and we’re not listening anymore to each other.”

“For me, we need a vision,” Foster said. “We need some people to get together and do some digging, get their hands dirty figuring out what we need instead of going through this crazy path that we go through every year.”

Earlier this month, in recommending a $343,200 transportation budget for 2022-23, members of the RTM’s Transit Committee had predicted the Board of Finance would cut the request — and that the money would likely be restored by the full legislative body.

Transportation “vision” lacking from administration

RTM member Dick Lowenstein, District 5, noted the word “vision” had been used. He said vision can’t be expected from an eight-member committee, or the 36-member full RTM, or the seven-member Board of Finance.

“It has to come from the administration,” he said. “Unfortunately, for the last eight years, we’ve been pushing for some of this and it hasn’t happened. I’m hoping that with the focus on traffic and safety, it will include also transit.”

Luke Bridle, an architect and urban planner, spoke in favor of full funding for the transit district. Several letters supporting the funding also were read into the record.

Former WTD director calls for consolidation

Jennifer Johnson, a former WTD director, told the board she believes it is time for southwestern Connecticut transit agencies to consolidate.

She said progress was being made elsewhere in Connecticut, but not the southwestern section of the state.

“The difference between southwest Connecticut and the rest of the state of Connecticut is that we have seven transit providers between Greenwich and New Haven …” she said. 

“Right now, if you want to travel between New Haven Greenwich, you have to go on seven different transit websites and seven different apps. It’s not sustainable.”

Gold defends transit agency

RTM member Peter Gold, District 5, a member of the Transit Committee and the current director of the Westport Transit District, defended the agency’s programs.

“You guys are going to do what you’re going to do, the RTM will do what’s in going to do,” Gold said. 

“I’m going to spend the next nine months, regardless of what you do, trying to make the service better, trying to service more riders, trying to find a better solution for transit in town, whether it be bicycles, or electric scooters, or Wheels2U or pedestrians and sidewalks or whatever …,” he said.

The finance board vote to slash the shuttle funding was unanimous.

Retiree health care contribution cut

The board also cut in half a requested extra $600,000 to cover heath care retirement costs of town employees. The program is well funded, but the extra payment would have brought the funding schedule into alignment with pension funding.

Some members didn’t see the need to put taxpayer money into an account when it was not needed. But in the end agreed to a compromise suggested by member Michael Keller, funding $300,000 of the request instead.