A few days ago, I noticed that HART’s route 89 connector was utilizing a minibus such as this. I thought at first, is this a joke?

No, it seems to be a permanent change for the route. Why? Gas prices?

Perhaps, why would HART need to continue running a 30ft Gillig bus on this route? Especially that the route sees only a handful of riders per day.

Yes, this stems off from very low ridership on this and several other routes in the HART system.

Specifically for the route 89, the bus travels through two wealthier neighborhoods, which most residents see no need to use the bus. Perhaps a South Tampa connector route such as the 89 is just not the right thing for the agency? Or maybe there is more to this?