The Missoula Mountain Line bus system has been running since 1977. The system was established by Missoula voters to support individuals without cars and to reduce the amount of vehicles on the roads according to the official mountain line website.. In an attempt to reduce emissions in 2018 Mountain Line went partially electric adding new all electric buses while keeping the old ones as well. Public transportation lowers emissions per passenger mile. Reducing the number of vehicles on the road not only stops emissions but they also provide safety and convenience to the public.

Many Missoulians struggle from poverty, 19.8% as of 2018 in an article published by the city of Missoula, and homelessness, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t have jobs that they need to get to. Missoula is putting in an effort to boost ridership and reduce cost, but in order to do so they have decided to cut routes in certain areas. Cutting certain routes will make it harder for many individuals to get to their jobs, school, homes, etc. 

The Mountain Line also plans on adding more routes near Mullan and Reserve while cutting original routes to reduce the costs of adding new routes. But why not just leave the original routes? The Mountain Line’s service decreased due to the pandemic and they are still trying to regain their pre-covid customer numbers, but won’t taking away important routes decrease the amount of riders? 

 If the Mountain Line was originally built around convenience and by voters, why is it now taking away routes that many people still utilize? Many would say this is a huge inconvenience to many loyal riders who now have to either find a different way of transportation, or figure out a different route to use that overall would take longer due to potential walking and riding distance. Overall the Mountain Line removing original routes will be a harmful change for most while benefiting some.