Burns demands truth from county officials, CamTran on bus service cuts
Urges residents to attend Sept. 13 courthouse meeting
Rep. Frank Burns August 31, 2018 | 11:47 AM
EBENSBURG, Aug. 31 – In his ongoing effort to restore CamTran bus services that were cut, drawing the ire of many seniors, state Rep. Frank Burns is urging the push for truth to include citizen participation at the next Cambria County commissioners’ meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 13 at the Cambria County Courthouse.
Burns, D-Cambria, has been relentlessly fighting for answers alongside seniors in Cambria County since CamTran, the Cambria County Transit Authority, slashed thousands of shared-ride bus trips on July 1.
“CamTran continues to purposely mislead the public by claiming that a ‘state-mandated policy change eliminated special trips for seniors,’” Burns said in response to a story published in the Aug. 25 edition of The Tribune-Democrat.
Burns points to written correspondence he has had with PennDOT Deputy Secretary Jennie Granger, who explicitly told Burns that “there were no changes with state law or policy relative to the Senior Shared Ride Programs.” She went on to say that “it is important to remember that they could still offer these trips.”
PennDOT officials have consistently asserted that CamTran, whose board is appointed by the county commissioners, determines its own parameters of service, including days and hours of service and the service area, according to Burns.
“Why won’t CamTran stand up and take responsibility for its own decisions?” Burns asked. “Instead, CamTran is trying to brush off the issue and ignore complaints in an attempt to wear down senior citizens until they have no fight left in them. Well, they’ve made a mistake underestimating the seniors in my district – they’ll never stop fighting.”
While he appreciates the recent efforts by the county Area Agency on Aging (AAA) to rent a van to offer trips to seniors, the move is far from a solution, Burns said. The AAA isn’t equipped to provide transportation services, and renting one van certainly could never make up for the thousands of trips CamTran stripped from seniors, he added.
Burns noted CamTran could restore bus service tomorrow by calling PennDOT and redefining its service area. PennDOT confirmed it’s as simple as notifying the department that CamTran will again offer shared-ride service in places like Somerset and Bedford counties. Then CamTran would follow the same guidelines it currently uses for trips into Blair County, an area which has not been cut.