Burns meets with upset seniors, launches petition drive to restore CamTran bus service to popular destinations
Rep. Frank Burns August 22, 2018
EBENSBURG, Aug. 22 – Responding to senior constituents’ outrage over the loss of CamTran bus service to some of their favorite destinations, state Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, is mounting a petition drive in his Ebensburg, Portage, Patton and Lower Yoder Township offices to restore the cut routes.
Burns, who took up the cause on these impassioned seniors’ behalf since they began peppering his offices with complaints several weeks ago, recently met with a dozen of them to hear firsthand how upset they are over the public transit agency’s recent decision.
“These taxpayers, now in their golden years, have been victimized by their transit agency’s decision to cut 3,700 rides per year – and they’re not happy about it,” Burns said. “As an elected official, I’m proud to stand with them and launch a petition to restore their bus service.”
Burns said his calls to PennDOT pinpointed that CamTran – the acronym for the Cambria County Transit Authority – made the decision to cut Shared-Ride Program bus service to destinations in Somerset, Bedford, Indiana and Westmoreland counties.
Because this was a county-level decision, Burns intends to deliver the petitions, which constituents can sign regardless of whether they are a senior citizen, to CamTran and to the Cambria County commissioners.
The petition says, “We, the undersigned residents of Cambria County, request that CamTran and the Cambria County commissioners fully restore Shared Ride Program bus service to neighboring Somerset, Bedford, Indiana and Westmoreland counties, so that seniors can continue visiting their favorite destinations.”
Burns added that he took on sponsorship of the petition drive after being informed that senior centers across the county, where the initial effort was mounted, were discouraging the effort because of fear of reprisal, including loss of funding.
Burns also classified as “smoke and mirrors” a recent Cambria County Area Agency on Aging decision to use one of its vans to pick up the slack caused by the CamTran cuts.
“There’s no way a van that holds 10 or 12 people is going to be able to fill the void created by the reduction of 3,700 bus rides a year to these places,” Burns said. “That’s like the old pranks of seeing how many people you could jam into a phone booth or squeeze into a Volkswagen Beetle.”
A synopsis of the CamTran situation, including interviews with seniors who have been affected, is available in this YouTube video.