I'm mixed on this. I have no doubt that it costs a lot of money to maintain, probably because of the union type wages and inefficient process involved.
However I find the cell phone comments a little misguided. Commuters are one thing, and they probably have everything memorized, but the typical person who relies on the bus as their only means of transportation is probably in the below average income area, and is even less likely to have a phone and/or the "skill" to figure out text messaging. Think of the elderly for example, they make up a huge portion of bus riders.
Overall it seems like a poorly thought out decision.