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Public Input Meetings to be Held August 28th and 29th
A study to assess the feasibility of consolidating transit operations between the Santa Fe Trails operated by the City of Santa Fe and the North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD) has been completed and delivered to NCRTD, the City and now the public.
During the City of Santa Fe’s FY2016/2017 budget discussions, the Mayor, Council and City Manager discussed various ideas about creating cost efficiencies with several city services, including transit. To better understand the opportunities for service coordination, potential cost efficiencies, and future service improvements, the City Council passed Resolution 2016-29, in April 2016, calling for a feasibility study for transit consolidation between Santa Fe Trails (SFT) and the North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD). The NCRTD Board passed a similar resolution supporting the joint effort.
The study does not consider any route specific changes in current service levels or travel path for either currently separate operation, but rather is a management analysis of the various issues surrounding a potential transit consolidation to be operated as an expansion of NCRTD.
The consolidation analysis report was compiled by Carlsbad, California-based Transportation Management & Design, Inc. (TMD) who led the project. Felsburg Holt & Ullevig (FHU), a transportation specialist organization based in Denver, Colorado, assisted in the study’s financial analysis, and Rosemary Romero Consulting, a Santa Fe-based business consultant, conducted the outreach and will organize and facilitate the public meetings.
A copy of the report can be found on the project website www.transitconsolidationstudy.com It can also be accessed through www.ncrtd.org and www.santafenm.gov
The study was initiated to document and quantify aspects of the two presently independent transit systems. It includes a detailed analysis of financial, labor and service factors. It also looks at sharing and/or use of existing and future physical assets and labor force; and overall service performance and integration.
Specific components/key areas of the study include:
- Public Outreach, and Presentations
- Evaluation of Current Operations
- Financial Analysis
- Physical Assets Analysis
- Labor Force and Collective Bargaining Analysis
- Fixed Route Service Evaluation
- Paratransit, Dial-A-Ride and Demand Response Services Evaluation
- Potential for both efficiency and cost associated with consolidation
- Constraints associated with consolidation
The consultant team has developed several consolidation options for each of these key areas of study and assessed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each option as well as obstacles, including an analysis of financial and labor implications, sharing and/or use of existing and future physical assets, as well as overall service performance and integration.
A final document incorporating the comments from the public information meetings and related NCRTD Board and City of Santa Fe Council discussion will be prepared.
In conjunction with NCRTD and Santa Fe Trails bus transit management, TMD and Rosemary Romero will conduct a series of public information meetings and presentations on Monday and Tuesday, August 28 and 29, to discuss the findings and take questions from the public and government officials. Those meetings, which are to discuss the report’s findings only, will include:
Monday, August 28
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM – NCRTD Board Special Meeting, Jim West Regional Transit Center, 1327 N. Riverside Dr., Española
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM – Santa Fe City Council Special Meeting, Santa Fe City Council Chambers, 200 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM – Public Meeting, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, O’Keeffe Room, 201 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe
Tuesday, August 29
5:30 PM to 7:30 PM, Public Meeting, Genoveva Chavez Community Center, Community Room, 3221 Rodeo Rd., Santa Fe
Funding for the $150,000 study has been provided by the New Mexico Department of Transportation which contributed $120,000 in federal transit grant planning funds, with an additional $15,000 each provided by NCRTD and City of Santa Fe.
