Consider Extension of the Ramsey Star Express service

In June of this year, City Council authorized Staff to negotiate with First Transit for the extension of the bus service until the opening of the Ramsey rail station. Over the course of the last few months, the Public Works Director has met with First Transit on multiple occasions to discuss the terms of the Ramsey Star Express service.  Attached to this case are the results of this negotiation. The Contractor needs to increase his rates by 3% from Oct 1 to March 31, 2012 but then agreed to reduce it back to the original price from April 1, 2011 until the rail station is operational or December 31, 2012, whichever comes first. 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.

Staff recommends that the City Council authorize Staff to continue the Ramsey Star Express service until December of 2012 or the opening of the Ramsey rail station, whichever comes first.

Funding for the bus contract is the Landfill Trust fund.

Currently, the City of Ramsey pays approximately $54,000 per month for the transit service and receives 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 decrease in the fare in March of 2008 from $4.50 to $2.75 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.