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Date: November 1, 2011 <br />Project No.: LSA 10 -12 <br />Project Name: Ramsey Phase!! Park & Ride <br />PARK AND RIDE CONTINUOUS SERVICE <br />The City of Ramsey is currently constructing the park and ride expansion as <br />proposed in the 2005 CMAQ Grant. Upon completion, the City of Ramsey Municipal <br />Parking Facility will now contain a total of 350 park and ride stalls that will be <br />available for use by patrons of both the existing bus services, prior to train service <br />commencing, and to future commuter rail service. The form, layout and function of <br />the park and ride stalls are identical in their usage for either bus or rail park and <br />rider users. <br />FUTURE RIDERSHIP & EMISSION SAVINGS <br />Upon completion, the project will still provide the identical number of park and ride <br />stalls once service is converted to rail from bus so the potential SOV trip emissions <br />calculations will remain the same. Additionally, as the train is currently running the <br />exact same route and has ample capacity without adding cars or trips to <br />accommodate the Ramsey Station, the emissions generated today will actually go <br />down as a result of the duplicative bus service being eliminated. (The assumption <br />here is that the train will be required to stop and start one additional time on its AM <br />and PM trip and this action will most likely generate fewer emissions than the <br />complete 27 mile bus trip to downtown Minneapolis.) <br />Ridership, due to the increase in fare from $3.00 to approximately $4.50, will <br />initially most likely have a slight negative impact on daily usage when passengers <br />are converted from bus to rail. However, as fuel prices continue to increase and <br />potential passengers see the value added in consistency in travel time for rail, when <br />compared to bus travel, ridership should regain its normal growth pattern. The City <br />of Ramsey is also adding a significant number of multi - family apartment units <br />directly adjacent to the Ramsey Station. This will also help increase ridership. <br />SUMMARY <br />The City of Ramsey has been a good steward of the public CMAQ funds and made <br />bus service improvements and park and ride improvements according to the terms <br />and conditions of their original grant. As this region grows and local bus service <br />becomes LRT and express bus service becomes BRT or commuter rail, this issue of <br />"modal conversion" will become more and more prevalent. I believe the primary <br />intent of the CMAQ grant was to simply build park and ride stalls and transport <br />people to downtown Minneapolis on public transit. Although the mode will change, <br />the goals are still the same: eliminate SOV travel and increase public transit usage. <br />To that end, it is my opinion that the City of Ramsey has accomplish this goal and <br />will continue to do so after the change from bus to rail in 2012. <br />C: JoAnn Olsen - LSA <br />LSA File 11 -05.03 <br />3 of 3 <br />