UT shuttles on Routes 661 – Far West/UT and 670 – North Riverside used to arrive every eight to 10 minutes. Since Aug. 16, riders have waited twice as long.
Ridership of the two routes has dropped sharply since fall 2019 as students moved away from the Far West and Riverside areas. According to a Capital Metro memo from March 2024, ridership fell 59% on Route 661 and 80% on Route 670 over that period. Citing that decline, CapMetro approved the change in April.
According to CapMetro’s service equity analysis, the change cuts each route from six buses to four during peak hours and reduces the two routes’ combined annual operating cost by about $1.6 million a year, a cost CapMetro and UT split. Those savings matter, but they come out of the hours that students need the most. If CapMetro is going to spend money anywhere, getting students to class on time is a worthy place to do it.
However, fewer riders doesn’t mean no need. Less frequent shuttles are harder to rely on for getting to class on time — risking pushing away remaining riders and making future cuts easier to justify, exacerbating the problem. UT and CapMetro should keep services frequent during peak class hours and cut back at other times.
From February to April, Routes 661 and 670 averaged over 1,100 riders each weekday, according to ridership data obtained through a public information request.
According to the memo, while the two routes use only 45% of the shuttle system’s hours, they also carry 22% of all UT’s shuttle riders, even though the areas they serve are home to only about 2% of UT’s estimated student population. That gap suggests that more people depend on these routes than the numbers show at first glance.
“It is a very skewed notion that only students live on that side of campus, and they’re the only ones using buses to get to campus,” said Saisha Salpekar, international relations and global studies senior and Student Government advocacy director.
The cuts fall hardest on low-income riders and riders of color. CapMetro’s service equity analysis found that 80.6% of Route 661 riders and 75.2% of Route 670 riders are people of color, and 87.3% of Route 670 riders are low-income. CapMetro acknowledged that the cuts would have a disparate impact but approved them anyway, stating in the memo that they have “a substantial legitimate business case to implement this change.”
The memo said CapMetro considered alternatives, including keeping the routes, but didn’t suggest keeping buses frequent during morning class rush. Salpekar said CapMetro told SG it’s open to running the routes more often but is collecting ridership data first. Frequency’s what makes public transportation usable.
Showing up late has real costs. Getting to and from class is a basic necessity, and arriving 10 to 20 minutes late can cost students time on a quiz or midterm.
UT pays nearly half the cost of these routes, so it has a say in how they run. UT and CapMetro should bring back frequent service during peak class hours before falling ridership becomes the reason for the next cut.
Rodriguez is a psychology and philosophy junior from Houston, Texas.
