Minutes 10-21-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Craig Benedict said everything requested by the Commissioners can be accommodated over a 5 year phasing period with these programs. He displayed a chart showing funding available through the Orange County Bus and Rail Investment Plan. Commissioner McKee asked Craig Benedict to explain the difference between several of the routes. Craig Benedict said the US 70 midday service will be during non-commuter hours and will complement what Triangle Transit is doing. He said Triangle Transit expects to extend its existing Hillsborough-Durham service to go from Mebane to Durham in January. He said the Efland-Hillsborough commuter loop will be during peak commuter hours in the morning. He said it will pick up riders in Efland, and take them directly to Hillsborough to catch a TTA route to Durham, before continuing on to Waterstone where riders can pick up the 420 route. He said the current circulator route is more of an access to human services during the daytime. Commissioner McKee said these could be feeder programs. He said, as a new service, this would be eligible to have access to the half cent transit tax money. Craig Benedict said that is correct. Commissioner McKee said he would like to see this included in option 2. Craig Benedict said the Efland commuter loop would be part of the option 2. Commissioner Pelissier noted that attachment 1 lists all of the recommended routes. Commissioner Pelissier asked when the fare box recovery will actually be approved. Craig Benedict said in the coming months staff will be analyzing how to charge for these routes. He said work will be done to make sure there are similarities with Triangle Transit and to come up with a fee schedule to accommodate the fare box revenue estimates. Commissioner Pelissier referred to attachment 1 on page 4. She said the program budget summary shows, in fiscal year 2015, that $211,000 will be generated from half cent sales tax, but the County will only be spending $156,000. She asked if this is correct. Craig Benedict said any money not spent will be banked. Commissioner Pelissier said this explains the one year of gap where the revenue does not cover the service, and this is because the excess from the previous year can be used. Craig Benedict said that is correct. Commissioner Price asked if the 420 route is ever full. She wonders if it makes sense to have a smaller bus. Craig Benedict said staff does not know the ridership now, but they will start with small buses. Commissioner Price referred to the map on attachment 3 and asked if these zones are hard and fast. She questioned whether route 1A could go a little further south. Craig Benedict said these routes are approximations, and work is still being done on them. Commissioner Rich asked what the updates will look like, what standards will be used, and how frequent the updates will be. Craig Benedict said there are different standards for rural and urban services. He said there have been discussions about this with Triangle Transit. Craig Benedict said a metric has been developed to bring back to the Board of County Commissioners, and this will likely be presented to the Board once a year, prior to budget discussions. Bret Martin said the service standard would make use of the passengers per service hour metric. He said the standard would state that services and routes should be no less than one half below the system's average for each type of service. He said TTA uses 25 percent below, but OPT does not have as much benchmark data.