HRT proposes trimming low‑ridership routes in Newport News and expanding microtransit to preserve service

Hampton Roads Transit officials told the Newport News City Council on Oct. 14 that a draft system optimization plan would reduce low‑ridership local bus service and shift resources into higher‑demand routes and demand‑responsive “microtransit” zones.

The plan, presented by Ray Amoruso, HRT chief planning and development officer, addresses a sustained shortage of bus operators and seeks to improve reliability and cost‑effectiveness by right‑sizing the network. “In the month of June, as example, for the entire month, we missed about 1,200 trips because of lack of bus operators,” Amoruso said. He said the agency is short roughly 50 operators to get back to pre‑pandemic service levels and needs another 45 to implement its planned regional backbone of high‑frequency routes.

HRT’s goal is to concentrate frequent 15‑minute peak service on a smaller set of regional backbone routes while using microtransit — small passenger vans that operate on demand inside defined zones — to fill gaps where fixed‑route service performs poorly. Amoruso said…