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<br />-:#4 <br /> <br />CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION <br />Topic Report: Consider Options for the <br />Ramsey Star Express <br />By: Brian Olson, Director of Public Works I <br />Principal City Engineer <br />'G <br /> <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />The City of Ramsey has successfully operated the Ramsey Star Express Commuter Coach <br />service since January 2007. A graph for Average Daily Trips along the corridor is attached to <br />the case. As the graph indicates there has been some reduction of the Northstar Commuter Coach <br />participation but overall the corridor ridership has increased by 162 riders per day in 2008 and <br />slightly decreased to 128 riders through June 2009. <br /> <br />As the City Council may recall, the City applied for a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality <br />(CMAQ) grant for the Ramsey Rail Station earlier this year. Also attached to the case is a history <br />of the bus service and the action that was taken in February of this year extending the service <br />through September of 2009. <br /> <br />On Monday, August 3, 2009, Staff met with representatives of the Metropolitan Council to <br />respond to questions that were asked during the Funding and Programming Committee of <br />CMAQ solicitation process. These questions centered around the ridership that is expected and <br />was modeled by AECOM as part of the preliminary design of the station during the project <br />administered by the Anoka County Rail Authority with cooperation with the City of Ramsey. <br /> <br />According to the model, the expected ridership at a Ramsey Rail Station has been estimated at <br />497. The Metropolitan Council interpretation of the data in the model indicates that these are not <br />"new" transit users but rather riders that would go to the Elk River or Anoka stations in the <br />absence of the Ramsey rail station or Ramsey Star Express. This gives the City really only two <br />options: l) give up on the vision of a rail stop or 2) continue the operation of the Ramsey Star <br />Express until after the rail starts and prove that the ridership and a rail stop is justified. <br /> <br />Staff will also attempt to provide the City Council more information from the meeting on <br />Thursday with the Funding and Programming Committee in an attempt to layout the issues and <br />costs at that time. <br />