About two dozen people, many in wheelchairs, came to Port Orchard’s Givens Community Center to hear Kitsap Transit Service Development Director John Clauson explain the additional service cuts the agency is proposing for December due to still-stagnant sales tax revenues.

“We don’t know what, if anything, will be approved yet,” Clauson said, explaining that the Kitsap Transit Board of Directors will be considering the cuts at its next meeting on Tuesday, and it can pick and chose amongst the various changes suggested.

Some are relatively minor, such as slicing about an hour off the top and bottom of Saturday service, and some transform four South Kitsap routes into three “trunk” services.

“Port Orchard is going to be a real interesting experience,” Clauson said. “We’re trying to figure out how we can get the structure of Kitsap Transit to such that it can support the population growth predicted for Kitsap County,” which is another 150,000 by 2040.

To support that, Clauson said the agency is creating a Bus Rapid Transit system, or BRT, which he described as “high-frequency bus service on specific corridors” that would serve certain high-population areas well.

“Instead of doing the peanut butter approach, which is covering everywhere, poorly,” Clauson said.

The BRT has already taken shape along Wheaton Way, running back and forth every 15 minutes from the Bremerton Ferry Terminal to the Kitsap Mall, and along State-Route 305 from Poulsbo to Bremerton.

In South Kitsap, the BRT would run from Fred Meyer straight down Bethel Avenue to the Port Orchard ferry terminal every 30 minutes. To complete the BRT from South Kitsap to Bainbridge Island, Clauson said KT only needs to fill in the “trunk from Silverdale to Poulsbo.”

The “trunk” from Fred Meyer would be one of three that are being proposed as replacements for four South Kitsap routes: the 4, 5, 7, and 8. Another “trunk” would run from the ferry terminal up Sidney Avenue (stopping at the Kitsap County Courthouse in one direction only) and ending at the Albertsons grocery store on the other side of State-Route 16 near Lowe’s.

Neighborhoods that would no longer be served under this structure would be the triangle of Salmonberry Road, Phillips Road and Jackson Avenue, and the loop of Converse Avenue, Cedar Road and Bethel Road. However, Clauson said the eventual goal is to add “feeder” routes that would serve those neighborhoods and “feed” into the “trunks.”

“That is the idea behind the ‘trunk-and-feeder’ service,” he said.

Clauson said in most instances, routes were only cut — such at the 14 which serves Central Kitsap — when there were other alternatives available. However, when one rider asked how she would be able to get home from evening concerts on the waterfront if the 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. “ferry take-home” buses from the Port Orchard ferry terminal were eliminated as proposed, Clauson said: “Actually, you would have no alternative with the transit service.”

When another rider asked if the route changes meant that people in wheelchairs coming from the Retsil Veterans Home would have to transfer buses to get to Fred Meyer, Clauson said it did.

“However, a little bit of good news is, after December, paper transfers are going away entirely,” Clauson said. “It will save us $10,000 a year if we don’t have to print those anymore.”

After December, passengers will be able to transfer buses within a two-hour period using their ORCA cards. However, people paying cash will not be given transfers, he said, and they will have to pay a fare for each trip.

As far as ACCESS service, Clauson said that certain areas — like Burley-Olalla, Seabeck and Hansville — that are outside the core where KT is “legally obligated to provide service” may see their frequency of service drop from five days a week to three.

“In Burley-Olalla, you’ll probably still see buses five days a week,” he said. “However, in areas like Hansville, you’ll probably see buses three days a week.

“The beauty of ACCESS is,” he continued, “we know your travel patterns, and we know when and where you go, so you will get those buses when you need them.”

Rita DiIenno, a retired bus driver who is president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1384, asked Clauson why the Port Orchard area was losing 25-percent of its bus service, while other areas were losing much less.

“Why is Port Orchard getting the biggest hammer?” DiIenno said.

“I don’t have what I’m sure is going to be an acceptable answer,” Clauson said. “(The changes) are a way we can head to a trunk-and-feeder system. It wasn’t like we were looking at hitting Port Orchard — it was a way to make cuts and still service the area.”

If all the cuts are enacted, another rider asked how many bus drivers’ jobs would be eliminated.

“That is still in the air,” Clauson said. “It may be six to eight, it may be 14.”

When another audience member asked how many directors the agency had and if any of them had been cut back, Clauson said there were six, and that one had been cut to part-time.

The KT Board of Directors will consider the service cuts and take public comment on them at its next meeting Sept 15 at 9:45 a.m. at the Norm Dicks Government Building on Sixth Street in Bremerton.