Barrow gives up on bus system

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

Seven buses, which ferried residents around Barrow, population 4,500, now sit unused in a municipal garage.

The buses used to run 16 hours a day, seven days a week, but the North Slope Borough needed to trim its growing expenses, and the 20-year old transit system was chopped.

“There’s this perception that the roads are paved in gold here and that we have plenty of money,” Dennis Packer, the borough’s chief of staff, told Associated Press. “A lot of people don’t believe there’s no money and that’s unfortunate. But it’s pretty straightforward.”

Packer said the cash-strapped borough is working to find an alternative transportation system, such as a private shuttle service.

Use of the public transit system was low and fares brought in only $30,000 annually, far short of the $700,000 cost of maintaining and operating the public transit system.