JTA Plans Major 2027 Cuts

[marcuscnelson]

Decided to log in to today's JTA board meeting. What a doozy.

After a discussion of several alternatives, and concerns by board members over the likelihood of reduced sales tax revenue and higher fuel costs in the coming year, the board approved a Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget with major cuts in an effort to close a $17.5 million funding gap.

To achieve this, JTA will:

• Reduce frequencies on all First Coast Flyer lines as well as Routes 1, 3, and 19 to every 25 minutes.
• Reduce frequencies on Routes 4, 10, 11, 12, 14, 50, and 53 to every hour.
• Eliminate Routes 23, 25, 80, 82, and 202 entirely.
• Reduce frequencies on NAVI to every 12 minutes.
• Start running the Skyway later in the morning and end service sooner in the evening, to match NAVI.
• Start running the St. Johns River Ferry later in the morning and end service sooner in the evening.
• Convert portions of ReadiRide to Uber.
• Eliminate ReadiRide entirely in the Collins Road, Oakleaf, Southside, Wheat Road, and Woodstock zones.
• Increase Fixed Route fares to $2 and introduce $1 fares on NAVI, alongside increases elsewhere.
• Increase Connexion paratransit fares to $4 and TD fares to $4.50.
• Further administrative cuts to be determined later.

The service changes would take effect October 1st of this year, with the fare increases to follow in January 2027.

[Ken_FSU]

Breaks my heart that these changes will devastate quality of life for a portion of the population largely invisible to most. When the NAVI is preserved but entire bus routes are eliminated, mass transit headways are increased significantly, and hours are slashed for key people movers, it's clear that JTA leadership is more concerned with their own fragile egos and stubbornness than they are with serving the population that depends on them.

[Charles Hunter]

Could a vote of City Council redirect sales tax money from U2C/NAVI to actual bus service?

[Charles Hunter]

I compared the current JTA bus schedules to the announced cuts. With a few exceptions, JTA is going to hourly headways (time between bus arrivals) throughout their system. This, and the significant fare increase (from $1 to $2) will accelerate the ridership decline. This is what's known as a 'death spiral' in the transit industry.

The routes going to 25 minutes serve North Main, FSCJ-North, Moncrief, Soutel, Dunn Ave., Imeson Industrial Park, Arlington/Regency, with current headways ranging from 15 to 30 minutes.

The routes going to 60 minutes serve Kings Ave., Edward Water University, AP Randolph/Eastside, Myrtle/Lem Turner, Normandy, and a Crosstown Route the length of University Blvd. with current 30 minute headways

The eliminated routes include one crosstown route: Townsend/Southside, from Arlington to Baymeadows/Avenues Walk. A route serving San Marco, San Jose, University Blvd, and Spring Park - both hourly services. And three peak-only services: NAS-JAX, Amazon, and Mayport

Sixteen routes, throughout Jacksonville are unchanged. one (Dinsmore) is a peak-only service, three are Crosstown (Mayport Village/Jax Beach-JTB), Edgewood/Cleveland to FSCJ-Kent, and San Jose/Crown Point to the Town Center. Most currently have 60 minute headways, with exceptions for service between downtown and the Town Center (20 min), and a route serving Commonwealth/Lane (30 peak / 60 other) and one serving Beaver, Cassat, 103rd (30 min)

[thelakelander]

Sucks to see and I agree with Charles about the death spiral. The correct first move should be taking a bigger ax to NAVI and taking care of the higher ridership routes and services.

Almost one half of the deficit is being burned annually having multiple drivers circle DT slowly in empty NAVI vans. If no one is riding them now, charging a $1 isn't going to generate anything to plug that budget gap. Whack it to reduce the burden on transit riders citywide.

[jaxlongtimer]

Let's see... the riderless Navi will run every 12 minutes while buses that actually transport people will ride every 25 to 60 minutes.  Add, if someone has to transfer buses to cross town, it could easily take up to 2 hours! 

Time to call Uber.  And, when it goes autonomous using Waymo, JTA in its current iteration will be totally worthless. Yes, it is in a death spiral and we can thank the money draining riderless Navi and near-riderless Skyway loyalties for all of it.

I might add that I doubt that those who use the Skyway or Navi are wholly dependent on those modes.  They likely have cars and took those modes instead of walking or parking closer to their destinations.  In all probability, most bus riders don't have any good alternatives to riding buses.  As such, we are favoring those who have cars over those who don't.  This is not what public transit should be prioritizing.

The JTA rubber-stamp board is clueless and has their head in the sand. They need to revisit what JTA's mission is as this is a ship afloat with no real purpose than keeping JTA staffers employed.

[marcuscnelson]

More detail on the cuts at the Daily Record:

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2026/may/28/jta-cutting-services-increasing-fares-to-make-up-for-projected-budget-deficit/

My read from watching the meeting is that everyone involved, from the Board to Council Liaison Johnson, is far too impressed by the very unimpressive NAVI to take the work they're doing in JTA's oversight seriously. And now we've arrived at the point in which everyday Jaxsons are going to suffer for it. It simply should not matter that however many junkets are coming by to gawk at the thing, because "how many junkets gawk at your transit line" is not a real or useful measure of success for mass transit.

I think it says something deeply pitiful that the First Coast Flyer, our $140 million Bus Rapid Transit system, after more than a decade and a half of development and construction, experienced perhaps a year of operating to its full design (with all lines open at their intended frequencies) before being reduced to truly just differently numbered bus routes again. It ought to be an absolute embarrassment for all involved, but again, their focus is clearly elsewhere.

[Charles Hunter]

From the article

Between the service cuts and fare increases, JTA still expects a $2.31 million deficit. The authority told board members it would seek to cut $2.3 million in expenses with administrative reductions.

Will that include keeping Mr. Ford in his office on Bay Street?