Belle Glade Express bus system a first for Palm Beach County

Dec. 01--BELLE GLADE -- The white shuttle bus weaves through narrow neighborhood roads, passing by well-manicured houses, rundown tenements, substandard migrant housing and nursing homes.

Bus driver Mike Kelly talks about the regulars who rely on him for trips to the post office, grocery store, the clinic, the bank.

He pulls over when someone flags him down on the side of a road. He waits for passengers who run into a county office to drop off water bills. He jokes with regular Catherine Dinkins, 86, about wrestling alligators spotted in a canal by the road.

This is the Belle Glade Express. And it's doing what no other city in Palm Beach County has done, providing a citywide bus service for residents who need to get around town.

"It's gotten really popular around here," said Nelson Trujillo, operations manager for Horizon Coach Lines, the vendor providing the service for the city. "People are living their lives around it."

The transit system is still in its infancy, started in 2010 with a federal grant, but it's had explosive growth in that short time. Last year, 54,315 people boarded the buses, an 87 percent growth over its inaugural year.

But the Belle Glade Express is facing a roadblock: a funding gap. The federal grant -- $995,466 over three years -- is running out. The city only has enough money to keep the buses running until April.

Like many transit systems, the Belle Glade Express is not self-sufficient. The city would have to pick up the cost, about $600,000 a year, to continue providing the service.

That's something the impoverished town can't afford.

"There's not enough money from taxes coming in," said Lillian Tomeu, the city's grant and special projects coordinator who started the bus system. "I'm looking at how to raise money. The truth is I need annual funding I can count on. I've run out of excuses to get [federal] money."

Tomeu is passionate about saving the bus system, not only because she created it but also because she sees it as critical to creating a more promising future for a town that for too long has been down on its luck.

Belle Glade is Tomeu's hometown. She grew up here, leaving it behind in the 1970s to pursue a career in business.

Several years ago, the retired business executive who was living in Boston returned to South Florida. With her Cuban background, she planned to settle in Miami and immerse herself in the predominate Latin culture.

But she was drawn back to her hometown. When Tomeu left, it was a thriving agricultural community. But what Tomeu found when she returned was depressing -- a deteriorating town, poverty and crime. Still, she decided to stick around to help.

Focused on economic development, she saw the town was sorely lacking in public transportation. To attract businesses, she knew the town needed a transit system so employers could depend on workers to make it to work.

By some estimates, more than a quarter of Belle Glade's population doesn't have access to cars.

Palm Tran, Palm Beach County's bus system, operates in the Glades. But it sticks to major roads. That left many residents walking miles to get to a bus stop.

Tomeu's solution: apply through the Florida Department of Transportation for a federal grant to start a city bus system.

She got the money, but Tomeu freely admits she knew nothing about starting a transit system. She got help from the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization, the county's transportation planning agency.

Tomeu remembers riding around the city with Palm Beach MPO senior planner Angela Morlock, mapping out routes. They made sure the routes reached deep into neighborhoods, especially the more impoverished ones, and traveled to major attractions and destinations. They made sure the routes linked up with Palm Tran routes.

"The biggest users of the bus were the elderly and the transit dependent," Tomeu said. "They are too poor for car insurance and gas but they still need to get to work."

From the start, the Belle Glade Express had no trouble attracting riders. Even as fares increased -- free to 75 cents -- and the city cut back service on weekends to stretch the grant money further, ridership grew.

"It's the best thing we've ever had since Palm Tran," said Allen Tucker, 69, who has been riding the bus for three years to get to doctor appointments. "It's a lot of help for people who don't have automobiles."

Juan Salinas, 16, recently began using it to get home from school. He said his family has a car but it needs repairs.

"I usually get home by walking," he said. "My mom usually catches it to get around places like the grocery story."

Other cities, such as Delray Beach, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach have trolleys and shuttles for particular areas like the downtowns or office parks.

But what Belle Glade offers is much more extensive, said Larry Hymowitz, an FDOT mobility projects coordinator.

"I wasn't surprised by its success," he said. "We understand the need out there. It's a very poor area. People need to have access to job opportunities. That's why it's so critical. Economic development depends on transit."

Eager to keep the Express running, FDOT and the Palm Beach MPO have teamed up to find sustainable funding for it. Tomeu is searching for advertisers and private donors.

"It was a good investment, and we need to keep that going," Morlock said.

astreeter@tribune.com, 561-243-6537 or Twitter @adstreeter

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