Keep Hopewell buses running for the greater good

It seems kind of dumb to even entertain the idea of shutting down the Hopewell bus circuit, even though it doesn’t pull its own weight in terms of profitability. What the service provides to the people who use it more than makes up for the $140,000 shortfall for the route. People who use the bus service, in all likelihood, would have to either get a ride from someone or hire a cab.

Of all three cities in the area known as the Tri-Cities, Hopewell is by far the most difficult to reach. It is miles from I-95 and pretty far from I-295, if you don’t have some means of transportation. Using the Hopewell circuit and its tie into the Petersburg Area Transit (PAT) system, it’s possible for a Hopewellian to access Richmond for the price of local bus fare.

PAT, which supports the bus line now, has said it is one of their most used routes. Currently, the route operates because of grants and those grants are about to run out. Seeking another grant may be problematic, as money to support such things is starting to dry up. Isn’t available funding drying up everywhere?

But some things are worth doing just because it provides a useful and necessary service to the community. And, like it or not, our “community” isn’t Hopewell, Petersburg, and Colonial Heights anymore. What happens in any of those communities has an effect, positive or negative, on the other two. We have stood together for many things in the past under the Tri-Cities banner, and it’s time we start to think even more on a regional basis.

Sure, there are things that are city specific, but I suggest that people using the Hopewell circuit do so to get to jobs and go shopping in the other two cities, not to mention Richmond. With the cost of fuel soaring and not likely to come down this century, it just makes sense to try to build up some kind of transit system. With PAT, we have one sitting there waiting.

The situation in Hopewell is just one example of ways in which the communities could come together to enhance the entire Tri-Cities. There is a history of the area working together for the betterment of all. Lake Chesdin and the Appomattox River Water Authority is a fine example of what can be done when divergent communities put their minds together to improve the lot of the local citizens in the area. Five communities took part in creating Lake Chesdin back in the ‘50s:  Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, Prince George, Dinwiddie, and Petersburg.

If those communities could set down their brickbats and bury those old political hatchets that make it impossible to move forward on missions to improve the area, it seems to me that everyone would benefit. We get caught up in finger pointing and he said-she said arguments so much that the localities can never reach agreement on things as simple as whether it’s raining or if the sun is out. Some would argue one way and others the other just because of the locality they represent.

That kind of mentality has to change.

The Tri-Cities has an opportunity to move forward over the next few years. As the financial situations start to draw tighter, it just makes sense to look at ways the three cities can work together to improve the lives of their constituencies. In the case of the Hopewell bus line, it seems a no brainer.

Now, I know some look at the shortfall and say let the route fail. But according to PAT statistics, more than 100 people use the bus every day. That probably means jobs, retail sales, and opportunities for more people than just those who ride the bus. How can that be bad?

Yes, I realize it’s another $140k someone needs to find. But some money is better spent than other money that is spent, in this case the needs of the riders and the communities involved outweigh the cost. Most city budgets contain little pockets of funding that kind of get lost in the budget process. It’s the nature of the administration to leave those small areas of fat in order to offset any last minute calls for further reductions. How do I know this? Simple, I followed the budget battles between the school systems and the local councils for years. No school system in the area has had to shut down due to lack of funds.

So, my belief is that the funding can be found. It may take a bit of working together, God forbid, but I think between Petersburg and Hopewell, and if necessary Colonial Heights (they have the Southpark Mall route) some creative financing can fall into place to make such transportation possible. Without it, we are looking at adding a large number of additional vehicles to the already clogged roadways we have today, not to mention the increase in pollution, and the loss of jobs and increase in local unemployment.