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Changes In Bus Ridership Jumps
The Napa County grand jury wants to see better signs on the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency’s transit center, as well as greater marketing of the bus services available to local residents.
These were among several recommendations in a new report from this year’s grand jury, which was devoted to investigating the county’s transportation agency.
The report stated that NCTPA has seen a turn-around in bus ridership in the last year, following years of decline in the decade prior. The grand jury faulted high turnover among key staff positions within NCTPA, as well as antiquated buses, shoddy maintenance, and circuitous bus routes.
NCTPA Executive Director Kate Miller said Tuesday that agency staff will prepare a response to the grand jury report, which will be presented to the board of directors in April.
NCTPA reported a 25 percent hike in ridership on its regional and local bus and shuttle routes over the first nine months of 2013, which it attributed to a major overhaul in the design of the VINE bus routes that coincided with its new transit center at Fourth and Burnell streets in Napa.
That’s led transportation officials to estimate that the VINE system could continue to see 20 to 30 percent jumps in ridership annually over the next several years, according to the grand jury report.
But the investment in improving services has led to higher budgets for NCTPA, whose annual budget has jumped from $17 million in 2009 to $26 million in 2013. Much of the new spending went to capital projects such as finishing the new transit center, and purchasing 31 new buses.
The increased operations due to the route redesign, which took the VINE service to half hourly, resulted in a $1 million annual budget increase, the grand jury report states.
The grand jury report advocated spending more money on marketing efforts to get additional residents to ride the bus, or ride more frequently. New signs marking the Soscol Gateway Transit Center, which are in the works, would also help, the report stated.
It noted that the average spending on marketing between 2009 and 2012 was $145,864, but that figure jumped to $222,327 in 2013. The agency had spent only $22,000 — 10 percent of the total for the year — by last November, which almost marked the halfway point for NCTPA’s fiscal year.
The agency did get $90,000 in grant funding to help advertise the Route 29, which provides express service from the Napa Valley to the El Cerrito BART station. That funding resulted in increased ridership on that route, the grand jury report stated.
The grand jury also urged NCTPA to use the $10 million it has stashed in reserve on new capital projects — something which the agency is planning to do. It’s planning to build a new operations and fueling facility in southern Napa County, install Wi-Fi Internet access on all buses, and make other improvements.
The grand jury voiced some concern about how much time the board of directors — which also acts as a countywide transportation planning board — spends on managing the transit services in Napa County. The report said the board spends 60 percent of its time on planning and 20 to 30 percent on transit.
*Original story from Napa Valley Register.
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