The Memphis Area Transit Authority is in crisis, with problems
rooted in funding, routes, demographic changes, and the continued
indifference of a public wed to the automobile.
Those are the issues that bedevil the system today, and those were
the issues that vexed MATA, as well as local planning authorities, back
in September 1996, as documented in Jacqueline Marino’s Flyer
cover story “The Long Road Home.”
As Marino put it then, “For a world-class distribution center,
Memphis still has problems transporting people from one side of town to
the other. Supporters blame the situation on funding and image. …
Along with the age-old complaints that bus service is too slow, too
limited, and too expensive, MATA faces increasing demands from
businesses, riders, social advocates, and government critics.”
Not much has changed. In 1996, Marino took note of a persistent
critic: “‘In Europe, in a language I don’t know, I can figure out how
to get places,’ says city councilman John Vergos, one of MATA’s most
vocal critics. ‘But here in the city I live in I can’t figure the buses
out. The route maps are confusing. A tourist at the Peabody has no idea
how to get to Graceland … . [General Manager William] Hudson knows I
disagree with much of MATA’s focus. It’s not glamorous, but MATA needs
to get to the nitty-gritty of running a bus system.'”
Hudson is still aboard and has made some changes over the years but
is likely to have to withstand more criticism from Vergos, now an
ex-councilman but still a critic and one who was appointed to MATA’s
governing board just this month by Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery.
