Hampton Roads Transit officials told Newport News City Council on Oct. 14 that a draft System Optimization Plan (SOP) would reduce low‑ridership local bus service and reinvest the saved operator time and city funding into higher‑demand routes and microtransit zones.

Ray Amorusso, HRT chief planning and development officer, said the plan responds to chronic operator shortages and aims to improve reliability by ‘‘right sizing the bus network to match the bus operator resources.’’ He said HRT is running 68 bus routes and that in June the system missed about 1,200 trips because of a lack of bus operators. Amorusso said the agency is short about 50 operators to return to pre‑pandemic service levels and needs an additional roughly 45 operators to fully implement the regional backbone of high‑frequency routes.

The SOP seeks to reduce service on underperforming local routes — some carrying about three passengers per hour on hourly schedules — and redeploy those resources. Amorusso said HRT’s operating cost per passenger on the local average benchmark is about $19.63 and that routes funded by Newport News include at least one persistent low performer (referred to in the presentation as route 11).

HRT proposes three microtransit zones inside Newport News as mitigation and coverage tools: an existing pilot zone of approximately 23 square miles (currently funded with an 80% state trip grant/20% local match), a proposed North Newport News zone of about 17 square miles, and a Newsome Park zone of about 9 square miles. Amorusso described microtransit as on‑demand shared rides in small vans that typically pick up riders near virtual stops within 15 minutes and either deliver them within the zone or to nearby fixed‑route stops.

HRT said microtransit pilot results in Newport News show lower hourly operating cost than fixed route pilots ($72 per hour versus $126 per hour systemwide for fixed route, as reported) and better cost‑per‑passenger performance on low‑demand corridors. Amorusso added that existing high‑frequency backbone routes have produced ridership gains (he cited 40–65% increases on some 15‑minute services) and that higher ridership improves farebox return; HRT’s farebox recovery is currently about 6–7% and the agency hopes to reach double digits.

Council members pressed for budget detail and effect on local funding. Councilman Harris asked how shifting funding from eliminated fixed routes to microtransit would affect the city’s HRT allocation; Amorusso said city funds that support low‑performing fixed routes would be shifted to microtransit and, if the assumptions hold and state and federal assistance remain in place, ‘‘it should be revenue cost neutral’’ and HRT would provide more detail in November.

Councilman Bennett asked whether microtransit would replace specific routes; Amorusso said no single backbone route like the 1‑12 on Jefferson Avenue would be removed because of backbone rollouts, but some east‑west local routes that overlap other service might be recommended for elimination and replaced by microtransit as an overlay to feed remaining fixed routes.

Amorusso outlined the schedule: council briefings in October–November, refinement of recommendations in November, return to councils in January with a final draft, an HRT commission briefing in February and a hoped‑for commission adoption in April. He said phased implementation could begin as early as October 2026 with subsequent service changes in May and October 2027 if adopted.

HRT also said it will examine fare policy changes, mobile fares with fare capping and sustainability efforts to increase agency revenues and contain operating costs. Amorusso said a main operational goal of the SOP is to reduce mandatory overtime and operator burnout by using a smaller, more efficient network that requires fewer operators for reliable published service.

City staff and HRT said more detailed fiscal analyses and route‑level recommendations will follow. Amorusso said regional funding through the 2020 General Assembly RTS (regional transit) money pays for the 15‑minute frequency increases and that the six municipal partners are not directly funding that increased frequency.

The presentation concluded with an invitation for questions and a commitment to return with more detailed financial and route‑level information in November and January.