EZ Rider
As is my custom, I like to see how our fair Bus System is performing using the data published by the Federal Transit Administration (the folks who dole out the Federal Money to EZ Rider). The data is almost useless for decision making, since it is for the year ended December 31, 2005.
Yes that's right, local transit authorities are required to submit detailed reports MONTHLY to the FTA via the Internet and all annual reporting must be done no later than April 30 of each year. Revisions are allowed up until July 2 and then everything is closed out. We the public don't get to see any of this data in an easy to access format until a formal report is shoved out the door in late November or December. This bureaucratic sloth is appalling. Try operating a public company and telling the SEC you'll state your financials about a year after after the fact, or even submitting your tax return to the IRS that late!
Anyway, here we are at the close of 2006 and we can now see how EZ Rider (and all the other transit authorities) did in 2005.
All of these figures come from the National Transit Database
| Operating Income | NTD2004 | NTD2005 |
| Fare Revenues | $131,414 | $193,007 |
| Local Funds: | 298,083 | $362,659 |
| State Funds: | 256,191 | $307,429 |
| Federal Funds: | 825,809 | $910,407 |
| Other Funds: | 1,966 | $0 |
| TOTAL | $1,513,463 | $1,773,502 |
| Operating Expenses | NTD2004 | NTD2005 |
| Salary, Wages & Benefits | $976,342 | $1,146,348 |
| Materials & Supplies | 253,966 | $358,310 |
| Other Expenses | 283,155 | $268,844 |
| TOTAL | $1,513,463 | $1,773,502 |
Now what about passengers?
| NTD2004 | NTD2005 | |
| UPT Bus | 226,215 | 298,606 |
| UPT ParaTransit | 6,652 | 14,590 |
| Total | 237,867 | 313,196 |
So what is this in numbers anyone can understand? Well, according to the report it cost $5.35 for every bus UPT (unlinked passenger trip) and $12.16 for every para-transit UPT. UPT is a bureaucratic terms, which basically means every time a passenger walks onto a bus. In Midland it takes, on average, 4 UPT's to make a round trip on a bus and 2 UPT's on a paratransit. So in 2005 it cost $21.40 for every person who traveled on a fixed route and $24.32 for every person who traveled on an on demand bus to make a round trip. In 2004 these figures were $24.72 and $34.90 respectively. EZ Rider is getting better, but it still is costing the taxpayers about $19.40 per round trip passenger served!!!
Now let's look at the cost per Bus UPT in 2005 for other communities:
| San Angelo | $6.50 |
| Amarillo | $6.21 |
| Midland | $5.35 |
| Waco | $4.77 |
| Kileen | $4.64 |
| San Saba | $4.64 |
| Houston Metro | $3.23 |
| National Average | $2.81 |
| Abilene | $2.18 |
| Lubbock | $1.58 |
In comparison to other Texas Cities, EZ Rider isn't the most expensive bus system to run per passenger, but it is near the top of the list of comparable cities.
So, for the estimated 315 people that ride EZ Rider each and every working day, enjoy the "13x your money" subsidy from the taxpayers. Where else can the users spend $432 per year for a service that costs $5,627 per year to provide?
4 Comments
I wonder if all the "Free Shuttle" ridership to things like the Feast of Sharing will be added to the passenger counts sent to the Feds. That will make the UPT costs look better, but you can still find the waste in the percentage the fares make up of your transit system income.
EZ Rider's fares make up a shade under 10% of the budget, while fares make up a little over 30% of Lubbock's.
Face it, EZ Rider is a check box on an ED Amenities Survey and a way to sink $360k local dollars into a project to garner $1.2M in State and Federal money for about 40 transit jobs.
On second thougt, $360k for 40 jobs? That's a better track record than the MDC.
I was in a good mood until I read this post. Thanks a lot! :-)
Seriously, though, if these numbers aren't proof positive that we're too small and too self-mobile a community for a viable transit system, then I don't know what is.
I bet we could set up a travel voucher system for half the price.
I noticed during the holidays that we are now using bigger vehicles to transport not very many more people...wonder how the 2006 numbers will come out re: price per ride. The most I can say for the bigger busses is that they are moving advertisements. It would be interesting to see how the routes break down as to ridership...do, for instance, many people ride to work at Cingular? The other day at 5PM, hordes of cars were coming out of the parking lot there.....
Imagine how expensive the system would be if it were not A SMASHING SUCCESS!