Transportation costs cancel service program for workers
DANVILLE – A not-for-profit group’s attempt to provide a bus service for low-income workers to get to jobs in Champaign County has officially come to a halt, because transportation costs were too high.
On May 12, the Driven to Succeed program started with two refurbished school buses hauling entry-level workers directly to job sites in Champaign County.
But last week, the bus service came to an end, because fuel, maintenance and labor costs were too high for the program to reach a self-sustaining level, according to Kevin Flynn, one of the organizers and the primary source of funding for Driven to Succeed.
Flynn operates At Home Housing, a nonprofit organization in Danville that finds affordable housing and jobs for low-income people. He and members of the Vermilion County Coalition for Reintegration saw a need to transport entry-level workers, many of whom were getting jobs in Champaign County through temporary employment agencies, to job sites. The coalition is a volunteer group of local officials from various agencies, including Danville Township and the Illinois Department of Employment Security office, that focuses on providing low-income residents with support services, housing and jobs.
Using his own money, Flynn bought the two buses and, with the non-financial support of the coalition, launched the service.
“We were so close to becoming self-sufficient,” said Flynn, who explained that the service, at most, had about 50 riders in one day and needed that number to be 60 a day to be self sufficient.
Riders were charged $45 a week to ride.
Flynn believes the service could have survived in the long term if it could have made it another month, and he went to the Danville city council’s public works committee and asked for $10,000 in funding to help out.
The committee explained that it would need a full disclosure of how the money would be used before such a request could even be considered.
The city mass transit system already has a bus service between Danville and Champaign.
It runs six days a week, but not through the night. The first run begins at 6:20 a.m. on weekdays and the last leaves Danville at 5:20 p.m. On Saturdays, routes begin at 8:20 a.m. And the last one leaves Danville at 4:20 p.m.
Flynn claims that’s where his bus service picked up the slack, because some people who need transportation to Champaign County work night shifts.
Dick Brazda, director of Danville Mass Transit, said the Champaign-Urbana line was launched in March 2006 with a $200,000 federal grant, and the number of riders has steadily increased since then.
Recently, a larger, 22-passenger bus was added to the route to accommodate the increasing number of riders.
A round trip costs $12, and the Danville mass transit line is open to anyone, not just workers. The route follows University Avenue in Urbana and Champaign, making a few stops along the way, until reaching its final destination at the Illinois Terminal, 45 E. University Ave., C., where riders can access city buses, Greyhound bus services and Amtrak rail services.
Roger Boen, Danville Township supervisor and member of the coalition, said he believes the Driven to Succeed program could have been more successful economically if vans had been used rather than buses, which required generally more expensive diesel fuel.
The temporary employment agencies work out of the township office when interviewing pools of local workers for jobs in Champaign County and other places outside Vermilion.
Boen said the temporary agencies will continue coming to Vermilion County on a regular basis to hire workers, but he’s disappointed the service no longer exists to help workers get to the jobs.
“I hate that part of it,” he said.