Cuts to Anchorage’s People Mover bus service take effect as snow season arrives

Anchorage’s People Mover bus system launched reduced service this week in response to a long-running workforce shortage. The service changes took effect Monday, coinciding with the city’s first major snowfall, which made roads slick and slowed traffic — and left some bus commuters waiting for longer than usual in the snow.

The schedule, which the city says was based on public feedback, mostly reduces service on Route 25 from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes, said transit planner Stephen Stone. It’s one of People Mover’s core routes, running from the downtown transit center south on C Street to Tudor Road, slicing across the city to Muldoon Road, then heading north to the Veterans Affairs Clinic on the other side of the Glenn Highway before looping back.

People Mover staff announced a driver shortage in July and asked the public to vote between two service reduction options: one that would cut the frequency of six routes to once hourly, or another that would cut the frequency of one — Route 25 — to every 30 minutes. Of the 685 surveys completed by the public, 67% voted for the second option, according to the agency.

“Reducing that (Route 25) frequency in half literally allowed us to save four buses per day of use, and that equals at least seven to eight drivers,” Stone said.

Monday was the first time bus riders and drivers saw that reduction in action.

“You can see how the bus is packed,” Route 25 driver Derrick White said Monday evening. His bus was running about 12 minutes behind schedule due to icy roads and several accidents that cut off main arteries during the evening commute. “Usually, it’s about half of this.”

Behind White, following a stream of wet footprints, bundled passengers occupied nearly every row. Some were unfazed by the service changes while others said they had been inconvenienced.

Stephen Dilley, a daily bus rider since a health condition caused him to quit driving in 2003, said he was aware of the changes, so he planned for them. He used the bus tracker application on his phone to minimize his time spent waiting in the cold.

“A reduction is preferred, if it means we’ve got the drivers to cover more,” said Dilley, who added that in the past he’s been caught waiting for a bus that never came. “At least now we know we’ve got a bus coming. As long as it’s consistent, that’s the main thing.”

Several riders seemed to be informed of, and empathetic to, the driver shortage.

“It does affect me, but there’s not much we can do because of the circumstances of not enough drivers,” said Mario Pena, a regular bus rider. Pena, who relies solely on the bus since he had two bikes stolen, said he was more concerned about the city removing bus stop shelters. “I was standing out in the rain, waiting for the bus.”

According to Stone, People Mover is replacing 20 of its bus stop shelters that have exceeded their lifetime, a process set for completion in the summer of 2025.

Overall, service reductions were incentivized by an overburdened public transportation system, which in turn overburdened its drivers, according to Stone.

Previously, the People Mover schedule required 78 drivers on the road during the weekdays and 32 on the weekends. If more than about two dozen staff called out, or took vacation or family leave, riders saw gaps in service, Stone said.

The new schedule cuts out 52 hours of service time on weekdays, mostly by staggering frequency for the roughly 60-minute Route 25 run.

“In order to provide more reliable service, we had to reduce the level of service, and also reduce strain on operators,” Stone said.

On Monday, another Route 25 passenger, Tony Bright, said he was caught waiting for about an hour in the snow for the bus to come.

Rider Caryn Bush didn’t know how long she waited, but the maroon waterproof poncho that covered most of her body was soaked with snow by the time she maneuvered her wheelchair onto the bus. Bush, who was coming from a crafting activity at the Turnagain Social Club, said she’s a normal bus rider “only when it’s not winter.”

“I usually ride AnchorRIDES to come down here,” Bush said, referring to a door-to-door transportation service mandated under the Americans With Disabilities Act. “But I’m trying to navigate Anchorage without it.”

Some bus passengers didn’t notice a difference in service.

Seventh-grader Matti Johnson began riding the bus home from school on Mondays and Wednesdays this year to accommodate his mother’s new work schedule.

“I just noticed that when I got to the station, it arrived earlier than usual,” the 13-year-old said, momentarily pulled away from a video about how fossils are formed that he was watching on his smartphone. “It’s just like any public transit.”

Tabitha Lovell, a project manager at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium who rides the bus to and from work daily, said while the changes are “less convenient,” they don’t impact her life hugely.

“I have to plan a little bit more carefully, but in the end it’s not the end of the world for me,” Lovell said. “I imagine that, for a lot of our patients, it’s probably more difficult to try to make it to appointments.”

Additional reductions include:

• Routes 11, 31, 41 and 51 will end service by 11 p.m. on weekdays.

• Route 85 will reduce to hourly service throughout the day.

• Weekend service for Routes 31 and 51 will reduce to hourly frequency.