Agenda - Council Work Session - 06/07/2011

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A concern has been expressed by members of the PMT regarding the retention of the existing riders of the Ramsey Star Express. The goal would be to not only retain the existing riders but to add riders to the existing Northstar Rail by easing the transition to rail. As you are aware, the existing fare for the Ramsey Star Express is $3 per trip. The existing fare for the Northstar is $5.50 per ride from Elk River and $4 per ride from Anoka. A meeting has been set up next week with Metro Transit to discuss strategies to successfully integrate the newly constructed rail station and add at least the amount of riders that currently use the Ramsey Star Express. Staff is interested in Council feedback regarding the fares to assist with this goal. Currently, the City of Ramsey pays approximately $54,000 per month for the transit service and recieves about $10,500 per month in farebox, for a net average cost per month of $43,500. A graph for Average Daily Trips is attached to the case. As this graph indicates, there was a change in fare in March of 2008 to $2.75 from $4.50 per trip. It is difficult to say that the entire reason for the increased ridership was due only to the fare decrease, as the gas prices were above $4 per gallon, and therefore ridership on the entire corridor increased. However, it is pretty clear that there was an impact on ridership, as ridership almost doubled to about 260 rides per day from 133 rides per day. Continued contract for bus service The last time that Staff brought forward a request to extend the bus service for another 6 month extension to the First Transit contract, we were given approval to extend the service until Sept 2011 and to negotiate a contract extension beyond that term until the rail station was operational. At that time there was considerable discussion about issuing an RFP for the bus service but due to the uncertainty of the term of that contract the direction was to negotiate with the Contractor instead of issuing an RFP. In our conversations with First Transit, they will be willing to continue the service beyond the Sept 2011 timeframe with a 3% increase in costs. Since they haven't had any increase in their contract since the service first began in 2007, Staff feels that this is a reasonable increase, but wanted to discuss these terms before agreeing to continue the service. Funding Source: Funding for the bus contract is the Landfill Trust fund. Council Action: Based upon discussion revised cost estimate master coop agreement ridership through April 2011 Inbox Reviewed By Kurt Ulrich Kurt Ulrich Form Started By: Brian Olson Attachments Form Review Final Approval Date: 06/02/2011 Date 06/02/201105:33 PM Started On: 06/02/2011 10:12 AM