[Headline] Trailways fare-hike request angers handicapped, parents

By Fred gillies
Denver Post Staff Writer

1/19/85

A proposal by Trailways Bus Co. to double and in some cases triple its fares would impose a hardship on some parents of blind and deaf children who depend on the buses to maintain family ties, witnesses testified Friday.

More than 100 children at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs depend on the buses to take them home on weekends, Milly Long, a supervisor at the home, testified at a Colorado Public Utilities Commission hearing in Denver.

Some of the children's parents would be unable to afford increased bus fares, depriving the children of those weekend visits and resulting in "very sever" deterioration of family relationships, Long testified.

A spokesman for a number of wheelchair-bound disabled people also challenged the PUC to require Trailways and Greyhound bus lines to begin to develop a plan to make their buses accessible "for people who use a wheelchair."

"We ask that the PUC not allow an increase in (the cost of) tickets until Trailways shows good faith toward the disabled," said Wade Blank, co-director of the Atlantis Community for the handicapped in Denver.

Of the 13 disabled people who appeared in wheelchairs at the hearing, four testified, opposing the rate increase and calling for accessibility of all Trailways and Greyhound buses.

Other witnesses testified that rather than being allowed to increase its fares, Trailways should improve its sometimes slow and poor service and should act more vigorously within Colorado to fulfill needs for new bus routes that would increase its revenues.

Robert Temmer, chief PUC hearings examiner, indicated he will make a decision, in the form of a recommendation to the PUC, "in the near future."

Trailways has proposed that on routes within Colorado its fares be increased by an average of 140 percent over current rates. In some instances, the rates could be increased by as much as 321 percent.

Trailways' revenues "are down, and we need addition revenues," Gene Stegall, traffic administrator for Trailways in Dallas, said in a recent interview.

The proposed rate increases would put rates in all states served by Trailways on a rate-per-mile basis, he said. Increases proposed for Colorado are greater than in other states because rates have been lower in Colorado.

Created on

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 9 October 2019

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