TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: Jay Reinstein, Assistant City Manager
FROM: Randy Hume, Transit Director
DATE: May 7, 2018
RE:
Title
Fayetteville State University Funding for FAST Route 11
end
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
1,2,4,9
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
Goal 4: Desirable Place to Live, Work and Recreate
Objective D: To develop and maintain public transportation investments with high quality transit and airport services
Executive Summary:
Fayetteville State University has notified the City that it does not plan to renew the FSU Student pass agreement with the City and FAST. The FSU agreement provided funding that allowed FSU students to ride all FAST buses without fare payment and provided funding to support Route 11 that provides connections to Cross Creek Mall and to the Ramsey Street Corridor from FSU. This route also enabled FAST to add service to Country Club and Pamalee that previously had little or no bus service. This service started in 2015.
In order to offset at last part of the loss of the income from FSU in the FY 2019 budget, staff has developed a reduced service option for Route 11. This option would maintain all day service along Country Club/Pamalee but eliminate service along Murchison Road to FSU. This portion of Murchison already has 30 minute bus service with Route 12. It would eliminate service along Langdon and Seabrook, although this segment of the route has very little ridership except for the stop at the FSU arena.
FAST’s service standards and Title VI program provides that any major reduction in service on a route be made after an opportunity for public comment and public hearing. Once a change is approved we are required to provide a 30 day notice before implementing the change. In addition, a route or schedule change requires significant time to redo printed materials and make changes to a number of technology features on our buses.
Staff is seeking direction from Council as to whether it should begin the process to potentially reduce or eliminate service on Route 11.
Background:
The City entered into an agreement with Fayetteville State University beginning in January 2015 that allowed FSU students to ride all FAST buses without fare payment and provided funding to support Route 11 that provides connections to Cross Creek Mall and to the Ramsey Street Corridor from FSU. This route also enabled FAST to add service to Country Club and Pamalee that previously had little or no bus service. This service started in 2015. FSU’s funding commitment was initially about $143,000 and increased annually to about $150,000 per year. FAST provides encoded semester transit passes that the FSU Student Affairs Department distributed to students. After the first two years of growing ridership, student use has declined during the past two years.
FSU has notified the City that it does not plan to renew the FSU Student pass agreement with the City and FAST. In 2017, FSU also requested a reduction from the $150,000 annual funding provided in the agreement. Staff and FSU negotiated a funding reduction to $97,500 and would have eliminated morning service along Route 11 to offset the revenue loss. When the service reduction was presented to City Council for approval, Council decided to provide additional transit funding to maintain the Route 11 service.
In order to offset at last part of the loss of the income from FSU in the FY 2019 budget, staff has developed a reduced service option for Route 11. This option would maintain all day service along Country Club/Pamalee but eliminate service along Murchison Road to FSU. This portion of Murchison already has 30 minute bus service with Route 12. It would eliminate service along Langdon and Seabrook, although this segment of the route has very little ridership except for the stop at the FSU arena. This reduced service option would provide all day service with 90 minute frequency with one bus from approximately 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. on weekdays with a later start time of 8:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Currently, Route 11 operates from 6:30 a.m. until 8:53 p.m. Monday through Thursday with service extended until 10:53 on Friday and Saturday. The route uses one bus with 120 minute frequency until 2:53 p.m. when a second bus is added so the route frequency is reduced to every 60 minutes.
Route 11 travels along Ramsey Street to the Cape Fear Valley North Pavilion at Andrews Road. Route 11 provides the opportunity to extend service to the Goodyear plant as recently requested. Without Route 11, the service options to Goodyear would be limited and likely not very convenient.
FAST’s service standards and Title VI program provides that any major reduction in service on a route be made after an opportunity for public comment and public hearing. Once a change is approved we are required to provide a 30 day notice before implementing the change. In addition, a route or schedule change requires significant time to redo printed materials and make changes to a number of technology features on our buses. Realistically a service change could be fully implemented about September 1, 2018 if it was approved in June.
Issues/Analysis:
Timing for the process to make a service change is critical if the associated budget savings is to be maximized.
Budget Impact:
The cost and revenue impact of a service change to offset the loss of FSU income must still be finalized with the Budget and Evaluation department.
Options:
Direct staff to begin the process to reduce service on Route 11; or
Direct staff to eliminate service on Route 11; or
Provide additional direction to staff.
Recommended Action:
Direct staff to begin the process to reduce service on Route 11;
Attachments:
Route 11 FSU pwpt
Route 11 Map and Schedule