JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville bus riders are waking up to a new reality.<\/p>\n
Several routes have been eliminated and dozens more have changed as the Jacksonville Transportation Authority rolls out major service cuts, all part of $39 million in cuts made to deal with a budget crisis.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s changing<\/p>\n
Schedule changes are now in effect for more than 20 routes, including routes serving Kings Road, Atlantic Boulevard and Riverside, as well as the Orange Line and the Mayport Express. <\/p>\n
Those changes affect weekday, Saturday and Sunday service depending on the route.<\/p>\n
Several routes have also had route changes, meaning the bus now travels to different stops. <\/p>\n
And one new route has been added: Route 34.<\/p>\n
Routes eliminated<\/p>\n
Four routes have been eliminated entirely:<\/p>\n
Route 18, which served Regency Square Mall, the Walmart on Monument Road and the Monument Post Office<\/p>\n
Route 25<\/p>\n
Route 32<\/p>\n
Route 82<\/p>\n
RELATED: Fitch downgrades JTA\u2019s credit rating, cites weakened financial resilience amid $40M budget shortfall<\/a> | \u2018The house was on fire\u2019: JTA board member calls for leadership to resign, says former CEO hid extent of financial woes<\/a><\/p>\n How riders are feeling it<\/p>\n News4JAX spoke with riders at bus stops around the city, some on camera and some off. <\/p>\n Some tell us they weren\u2019t aware of the changes.<\/p>\n Others said the cuts don\u2019t affect them. But for many, the impact is significant.<\/p>\n \u201cI been utilizing the bus all my life. And now being that they made the bus changes, it\u2019s complicated. Now you can\u2019t determine how you\u2019re going to get to work on time by the way they changed its schedule. The buses used to run every 15-30 minutes and now it\u2019s every hour or hour and 30 minutes,\u201d said Charles Briley, a rider.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish they could make some adjustments. But you know, that\u2019s how it works.. when you cut, you cut,\u201d said Jerome Brown, a rider.<\/p>\n Layoffs and budget cuts<\/p>\n JTA was forced to make big changes to its service and lay off nearly 200 employees to get back on track financially. <\/p>\n The JTA board approved a $139 million budget for the fiscal year down from $178 million the year before.<\/p>\n The Skyway shuts down early<\/p>\n There is more to the story. The Skyway, which was set to pause service Monday was shut down unexpectedly early Friday morning due to staffing shortages.<\/p>\n Riders arriving at the La Villa Skyway platform found the entrance fenced off. JTA app users received a notification citing unexpected operational circumstances.<\/p>\n What comes next<\/p>\n City Council is hosting a JTA meeting Monday to discuss the agency\u2019s financial situation and the road ahead. News4JAX will attend the meeting and provide updates<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville bus riders are waking up to a new reality. Several routes have been eliminated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[164631,116,118,117,799,68308],"class_list":["post-445460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-cleveland-ferguson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jta","tag-skyway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}