What you need to know:
- A change in federal transportation funding requires the Mat-Su Borough to cover 50% of public transit costs and take over operations of the area’s bus service by July – or lose the money entirely.
- A large federal grant currently provides most of the funding, and the program is managed by the nonprofit Valley Transit with no borough oversight. But because of the borough’s population size, that grant is no longer available.
- Losing the service would leave hundreds of residents without commuter transportation to Anchorage and on-demand shuttles to essential services. Borough officials plan to propose service cuts, such as fewer daily trips and reduced on-demand availability, to lower costs. A new fixed-route bus line is also under consideration to improve efficiency.
PALMER – The Mat-Su Borough must cover half the cost of local public bus service by July or lose the program entirely due to a change in federal transportation funding rules for the region.
The program’s current federal funding runs out at the end of June when federal rules push the region into a new population-based funding category that requires state or local officials to cover half the cost of public transit. No state funding has been allocated.
Bus service in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, including commuter shuttles to Anchorage and an on-demand door-to-door program, is operated by Meadow Lakes-based nonprofit Valley Transit and funded almost entirely by a federal transportation grant. Rider fees make up less than 1% of the program's current $3 million budget, officials said.
The borough currently contributes no money to the bus system. Starting in July, it will have to cover half the cost of the program -- about $1 million, depending on the final programming -- or let the service shut down, officials said.
Under the current program, Valley Transit employs 30 people and provides 14 weekday and four weekend trips to and from Anchorage on six motorcoaches. The on-demand service uses six Valley Transit-owned shuttle buses and three vans.
Eliminating bus service in Mat-Su would leave hundreds of residents without rides to and from work in Anchorage and hundreds more without transportation to essential services within the borough, officials told the Assembly last year.
Last March, for example, about 40% of on-demand riders were students going to after-school programs, seniors going to and from the grocery store or veterans using the shuttle for health care appointments, Valley Transit officials said.
All told, the commuter bus service provides about 33,000 rides to and from Anchorage each year and another 29,000 to locations throughout the borough via the on-demand service, borough officials said this month.
Users pay $7 one way, $10 per day, or $120 per month for rides to and from Anchorage. On-demand rides start at $3, with total fees based on the distance traveled. Discounts or free rides are available to students, seniors, veterans and employees of some partner companies, officials said.
The borough's funding and operating plans for the program, including any potential cuts or fare changes, must be approved by the Mat-Su Assembly. Officials plan to outsource day-to-day bus operations to local transportation contractors while keeping route decisions and program design in-house, Borough Manager Mike Brown told the assembly. Bids for the services are expected to open this spring.
Borough officials plan to propose service cuts as a way to reduce overall costs. Those could include fewer daily trips to and from Anchorage and reduced on-demand availability, they said.
Planners said they also hope to use the program changes as an opportunity to make the system more efficient.
Proposals under consideration include adding a new fixed-route bus line that runs parallel across the borough, they said. Current commuter bus routes only stop at park-and-ride lots and do not enter downtown Palmer, requiring riders to drive to the lots to access the service. A new route running through the borough's core area could help more potential commuter bus riders connect to the service, they said.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com
This story has been republished with permission from the original at the Mat-Su Sentinel.
