Laserfiche WebLink
Mayor Ramsey stated Council is interested in the thoughts and proposals staff would come up <br />with. <br />Councilmember Wise felt that some of these things needed to be dealt with anyway. <br />4) Consider Options for the Ramsey Star Express <br />Director of Public Works Olson stated that this report outlines what would need to be done for an <br />RFP for bus service. He noted that in June, the City Council was briefed on the ridership and <br />cost information for the operation of the bus service. Council directed staff to release an RFP. <br />The consensus of the meeting was to require the Contractor to purchase and install all telemetry <br />equipment to allow the bus service to communicate directly with the Met Council fare collection <br />system. Staff has been working with the Met Council to define that equipment. In August, Met <br />Council sent staff information that will need to be included in an appendix to all potential <br />Contractors. He noted that was included with tonight's agenda. The purpose for tonight report is <br />to discuss the timing of the RFP, the ramifications in the delay as it results to the next six -month <br />service extension and options for continuing service. He reported that staff will be bringing a <br />case before the Council at their next meeting with the timelines or if we need approval for a <br />station, we have to be pretty flexible to get a timeline to guarantee they will have costs <br />reimbursed to them. We cannot have both the bus and the train running at the same time. Staff <br />is of the impression there will not be a lot of response to this RFP. The bid results are public. <br />He stated that this was Council direction but he wanted to make sure that this is still the route <br />Council wants to go. Mr. Olson stated that for customer service, 116 respondents were surveyed. <br />Fifty percent are not currently regular riders of the Star Express. They gave some varying <br />reasons why they do not use it consistently but the rigid schedule was the main reason. Of those <br />that do regularly ride the Star Express, 96 percent said they are somewhat or very satisfied. We <br />were asked to tweak the schedule and staff will look into that. There was a comment about <br />changing the pickup and drop off to be on the same side of the road They asked for a midday <br />return trip to be offered on Fridays; however, that would cost the City more money. A few <br />mentioned wanting bus service to St. Paul. Mr. Olson pointed out that our ridership numbers <br />have dropped a little. The highest was 280 and now we are down to about 210. <br />Mayor Ramsey asked if we can still get this RFP done. <br />Mr. Olson stated we would have to go one more six -month period. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated he still wanted to do an RFP to see if anyone else is interested and we will <br />certainly continue this service until we have a train. <br />Councilmember Elvig asked if this is a good time to look at buying our own bus. He thought he <br />would like to pursue looking into that. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated he is not opposed to looking at anything. <br />Councilmember Dehen asked about communities that used to run buses that now have rail stops. <br />City Council Work Session / September 7, 2010 <br />Page 6 of 9 <br />