The Jacksonville Transportation Authority will shift most weekday bus routes to a Saturday-level schedule starting Monday, Nov. 2.

Seven routes that currently run every 30 minutes on weekdays will drop to hourly service, according to a JTA press release. Twelve other routes will stay at their existing 60-minute intervals. Only the First Coast Flyer bus rapid transit lines will keep 20-minute headways, and Routes 1, 3, 8, 10 and 19 will continue running every 30 minutes.

On Route 14 along Normandy Boulevard, for example, weekday buses currently arrive every 30 minutes. Under the new schedule, riders will wait about 50 minutes, Action News Jax reported.

JTA has not published a full list of which routes fall into each tier. The agency's fixed-route page lists Route 17 (St. Augustine/San Jose) and Route 25 (San Jose/University Hub) as serving the Mandarin corridor, but neither JTA nor news reports have confirmed whether those routes will lose frequency.

Budget cuts eliminate up to 194 jobs

The change is part of JTA's effort to close a $39 million budget gap. The agency's board approved a $139 million budget for fiscal year 2027, down from $178 million in the current year, News4Jax reported.

Interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson III said in a Sept. 17 statement that the decisions were necessary to restore the agency's financial stability. Ferguson told Action News Jax that cutting alone would not solve the problem and that the agency had to restructure how it budgets.

The bus changes come alongside deeper cuts. JTA plans to eliminate up to 194 positions, including 44 administrative jobs and as many as 150 frontline workers such as bus operators and maintenance technicians. Nearly $25 million in savings will come from reducing contractual services.

The Skyway will stop carrying passengers the same day, saving about $10 million a year. NAVI shuttle service is set to pause Jan. 1, 2027, saving roughly $487,000 a month. Paratransit services will not change.

Council members raise concerns over cuts

District 1 Jacksonville City Councilman Ken Amaro voiced concern about the impact on riders in First Coast News coverage on Sept. 17. "It's unfortunate that the citizens, the riders, are going to be impacted because when you reduce routes, that makes it difficult for people to get to where they need to go," Amaro said.

The Jacksonville City Council was scheduled to vote on JTA's fiscal year 2027 budget Tuesday, Sept. 22. JTA said it would work through October to preserve as much service as possible before the schedule change takes effect.