The Ramsey Star Express Commuter Coach service will continue.
The Ramsey City Council Sept. 8 unanimously approved extending the lease with First Transit.
The six-month contract will cost $40,000 per month. It will increase to $44,000 when the Northstar Commuter Rail service starts in November.
The Northstar Commuter Coach, which will end when the train service starts, will be lost as a backup bus service and that will increase operating costs, according Public Works Director Brian Olson.
The fare box covers $14,000 of the contract and the remaining amount will come from the Landfill Trust Fund.
The bus service currently has an average of 256 daily riders.
According to City Administrator Kurt Ulrich, when the bus service ends in Elk River and Anoka, the Ramsey Star Express may pick up additional riders.
The bus service may be attractive to riders as it is a straight-through service, he said.
The continued bus service will also show the ridership Ramsey would have for a future commuter rail station in Ramsey Town Center, Ulrich said.
If the city continues the service beyond March 2010, it may increase the fare to $4 per trip, said Councilmember David Elvig.
That's a $30,000 shortfall per month; (once the contract price jumps to $44,000/month). The Landfill Trust Fund was never created with the intent that it subsicize transit services. A firmer basis for continuing the bus service beyond the convenience of a few in Ramsey is needed - and if the City poobahs are not folding the operation the only other option is that ridership must gain a boost.
I can off the top of my head envision several ways to gain ridership.
For example, hire young minimum wage workers to put "Win a Month's Freerider Pass" flyers under windshields in the Ramsey parking ramp, the commuter parking area in Elk River, and the commuter parking area in Anoka - and make it a promotion effort where a driver can fill out name, home address, and email account on the entry blank, and submit it to Ramsey City Hall on or before October 15, with a drawing to determine the 20 monthly free ride ticket winners; tickets being useful from an October 20 drawing date onward, bus driver to date the free passes when first used, good for one month to the day after that.
That way a ridership email data base is accumulated, and the entry form can emphasize that the usage period - when a winner can exercise the "freerider" privilege overlaps the inclement weather season when commuters might want covered parking instead of open-to-the-weather-and-scrape-the-ice parking option made available elsewhere. The White Elephant ramp should have more than sufficient vacancy to support more park-and-ride utilization tied-to the Ramsey Bus commute.
With one stop the bus arguably should be faster than other options, and that can be part of the flyer text, via lead-in text and bullet items such as:
Freeriders will be winners because Winners get a free ride.
For a chance to win, fill out the detachable card form and bring or mail it to Ramsey City Hall c/o Star Express Extravaganza [insert Norman castle address].
* Stop in Ramsey, stop downtown, and enjoy direct uninterrupted transit in between.
* Park in a well lit covered ramp.
* Commute knowing the police station's next door to the ramp, across the road from the bus stop, and within shouting distance of your parked auto and the bus stop.
* Avoid overcrowded situations. Enjoy relative comfort while someone drives you downtown and if you ever have to stand while riding a Ramsey Star trip, your next one-way ride is free.
* Pay only three dollars a trip, one way. No hidden charges, no more than that.
*** Or if you're hardy, young and liking the challenge, get to your car and scrape off a day's worth of snow and ice in the open windy cold before driving home after a day's work -- and commute paying more per ride, for that transit experience.
The other side of the flyer and graphic design should be easy - rework [update] some of the material onlien here, here [with this being the page to update and list as the web access page on flyers], and here - and incorporate this helpful already-written-and-formatted screenshot information, (from here):
That's only one idea. But the mayor and council and staff owe some kind of effort along these lines to Ramsey's taxpayers - to lessen the drain on the Landfill Trust Fund by attempting ways to make the service either break even, turn a profit, or lessen the subsidization burden on the Ramsey public for a service benefiting only a part of that public.
Something needs to be done.
If you run the Bus then city leaders, recruit the ridership.
It's not rocket science.
And it's your fiduciary duty owed the people of Ramsey.