Councilors research combining city, regional bus systems
City reviews study of Santa Fe Trails, North Central Regional Transit District
A new analysis of city and regional bus systems could put Santa Fe on the road to a merger of public transportation services.
The $150,000 study examined potential efficiencies and service improvements that could be created through coordination between the city’s Santa Fe Trails bus system and the more rural North Central Regional Transit District. The regional system stretches from Edgewood in the south to Taos in the northeast and includes bus routes that cross through Santa Fe.
Santa Fe city councilors and the regional transit board headquartered in Española will review the analysis. It does not propose changes to individual routes or bus schedules. Rather, both transit systems were inspected with an eye for possible consolidation or integration of assets, everything from employees to vehicles, fueling systems and garages.
While a consolidated agency might make for administrative savings, the report found that the two systems’ different approaches to route frequency and fare structures would present challenges, and that the current modes of service do not lend themselves to an immediate combination of routes.
Councilor Joseph Maestas, who co-sponsored the resolution that called for the study last year and sits on the regional transit board, said cost savings could be made if the city were to incorporate or merge its transportation system with the regional apparatus.
“The [regional transit district] is providing transit services all around the city, but there’s this doughnut hole where we’re providing our own,” Maestas said.
The study offers a menu of options for consolidating services beginning in 2018. These ideas would be reviewed by the City Council, the regional board and the public at a series of meetings later this month.
“We’re all still digesting it at the moment,” said Jim Nagle, a spokesman for the regional transit district. “But what it ultimately comes down to is what’s going to be the best thing for the city, the taxpayers and the public.”
Maestas said he wants to determine how much the city could save by boarding with the regional district. He said he believes the more than $7 million in gross receipts tax revenue that is dedicated to Santa Fe Trails could be put to use elsewhere.
“How can a general-purpose city government do, for example, public transportation better than a regional entity that focuses
solely on that?” he said. “There is a duplication of services [in the city]. There’s no doubt about that.”
Both opportunities for streamlined services and drawbacks to a more unified approach were identified in the 68-page study.
The North Central Regional Transit District, which began service in 2007, covers a 10,079-square-mile service area and runs 24 routes across parts of four counties — Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Rio Arriba and Taos — and eight pueblos. The regional bus system primarily provides “infrequent, trip-based long distance service,” according to the study.
Meanwhile, the city’s buses cover 52.5 miles of service area, most within the city limits, and offer 10 routes. It is a “relatively short-distance service within a small urbanized area.”
Because the two systems serve such different roles, “the opportunities associated with consolidation for resource savings from eliminating duplicative services are minimal at current service levels,” the report states. And even in the city areas where there is route overlap, “the combination of lack of frequency, the very long-distance nature and lack of fare compatibility of the current [regional] service does not provide any customer service basis for service integration.”
Nonetheless, the report says, an integration of service should be pursued if the regional system increases routes within the city and a common fare structure is hashed out.
There are nearer-term advantages identified in the study, as well, namely “more effective regional connectivity and mobility” if route transfers were coordinated by a consolidated agency. Riders could potentially travel farther and with greater ease if service schedules were united.
Employees of the city and regional systems have been represented by different unions. The report states that consolidation would require a single union and single contract for workers in a consolidated agency. “This would be one of the major benefits and most important aspects to consider for a successful consolidation,” according to the analysis.
Meetings to solicit public and official input on the findings will be held in late August in Santa Fe and Española. Transportation, Management and Design Inc., the California-based consultant that led the study, will issue final recommendations on possible consolidation efforts after that.