AMCAT route eliminated
Published 10:31 am Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Low ridership led the Austin Mower County Area Transit Board to eliminate a route from Brownsdale and Lansing to Austin, though board members and staff plan to research other rural busing options for the upcoming year.
“We would like to try Rose Creek or Lyle,” Austin director of administrative services Tom Dankert said. “They want us to continue to try to get out in the county.”
In a memorandum to the board, Dankert said the response to the Lansing/Brownsdale route was not “very favorable,” with only 11 riders using AMCAT over 34 weeks of operation.
He told the board that many of those riding the regular Wednesday trip are AMCAT employees and their family members, neither of whom are charged bus fares.
“AMCAT members and family living in the home ride free,” board chair Sherman Vereide said. “And in this case, those were the riders.”
The city is required to advertise the change 30 days before it’s implemented, marking Sept. 3 as the effective date. No buses will drive the route from that day on.
Board members also voted to add a bus to its Rainbow Route, which provides morning rides to preschoolers around the Austin area for $1.
“There seems to be a demand with 33 kids,” Dankert said. “The elimination of the Lansing/Brownsdale route will free up hours.”
The board approved an additional seven hours, bringing the total to 22 weekly. Members added in the motion that AMCAT staff may request more time later this year if needed.
“They’re from Mandolin (Apartments) to the airport, so it’s very spread out,” AMCAT transit manager Kelly Joseph said. “They’re all on the map, and all we have to is drive them.”
The route, co-coordinated by the United Way of Mower County, runs for morning preschoolers only.
“We just didn’t have what it took in the afternoons,” Joseph said.
Gas prices and other factors may be reason why general ridership and work and dialysis routes have gained numbers this year.
Dankert reported a 6 percent increased in fixed routes citywide, and about a 24 percent increase for work and dialysis routes.
“The increase comes from riders the last few months,” Dankert said, adding that Dial-A-Ride requested have decreased by 11.9 percent, leaving a 4 percent increase overall from 2007.
Though ridership is generally up, Dankert said, budgets are in the red about $9,600 this year, which he attributed to higher fuel costs.
“The fuel prices are crushing us,” he said, noting that AMCAT has spent nearly $60,000 on that budget item in the first six months of 2008. It budgeted $33,500.
As a result, the board will increase 2009 funding requests from the state of Minnesota and the Hormel Foundation, the latter of which heavily subsidizes the work and dialysis route. The Hormel Foundation previously provided $55,000 between the two routes; this year, AMCAT will ask the Austin City Council to request $60,000, as well as another $6,200 to partially fund a replacement bus.