by Elyse Apel
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is recovering part of the ridership lost during the pandemic, when it reported more than $70 million in overspending of its general fund.
In 2021, the authority reported it had overspent by $70.2 million in its general fund despite the injection of $122.2 million in federal money.
However, ridership is recovering in 2022 at the pace the agency projected. It reported 13.7 million riders through September 2022, which is 57% of the 24 million riders through September 2019.
Like other large transit agencies throughout the country, the pandemic impacted Cleveland’s operations. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued a stay-at-home order in 2020 and many people who worked from home have yet to return to their offices. For example, Progressive insurance company reported that of its 8,000 employees, 5% to 10% of employees have chosen to return to their offices for work when given the option in lieu of working from home. That has caused the insurance company to sell office buildings, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
In 2019, the authority reported 32.1 million boardings. That dropped to 16.9 million in 2020 and to 15.9 million in 2021.
With that drop in riders, fare revenue also fell from $53.2 million in 2019 to $31.2 million in 2021.
Federal money filled that gap, increasing the general operations fund from $23.6 million in 2019 to $129.1 million in 2021.
The authority received a total of $315 million in federal stimulus packages, which Rajan Gautam, deputy general manager of finance for the Greater Cleveland RTA board, said in a 2021 news release is helping to “ensure the long-term stability” for the authority.
Transit agencies in the U.S. relied on federal COVID-19 emergency relief money to keep operations going.
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Elyse Apel is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Cleveland Red Line” by Michael Barera. CC BY-SA 4.0.
