More people are using Valley Metro’s light rail system to get to work, classes and leisure activities in 2010 than they did last year, even with budget cutbacks that caused service reductions in late July.

The Phoenix area is facing the biggest drop in bus ridership in a decade due to service cutbacks, increased ridership on alternatives such as light rail and a lack of money for marketing services to attract new customers, according to public transportation officials across the Valley.

A lawsuit has been filed challenging the Arizona Legislature's raid on lottery money that has been earmarked for public transportation since the early 1990s.

As of March 18, the state's primary source of transit operating money and federal matching dollars for expensive and specialized capital equipment was permanently repealed as part of the state's budget solution. Oddly, not a penny of that money came from tax dollars or the state general fund, yet it was redirected so that the state could capture the already-designated revenue.