Midland now has a Fixed Route bus system called EZ-Rider. The whole point of having a Fixed Route public transportation system was to get the Federal Dollars "we were missing out on", quit being the largest metropolitan areas in the US without one, be like every other big city, fill in a check box on an Economic Development Project prospect form, help Midlanders who didn't have transportation, and conserve resources. (in that order)
I'll go into the numbers below, but the moral of the story is that in 2004, EZ-RIDER cost the Taxpayers approximately $24 per person, per round trip bus ride, with the rider paying $2. ($26 Total)
All of these figures come from the National Transit Database
| Operating Income (NTD 2004) | ||
| Fare Revenues | $131,414 | (9%) |
| Local Funds: | 298,083 | (20%) |
| State Funds: | 256,191 | (17%) |
| Federal Funds: | 825,809 | (55%) |
| Other Funds: | 1,966 | (0%) |
| TOTAL | $1,513,463 |
| Operating Expenses (NTD 2004) | ||
| Salary, Wages & Benefits | $976,342 | |
| Materials & Supplies | 253,966 | |
| Other Expenses | 283,155 | |
| TOTAL | $1,513,463 |
There is no accounting of the $1,106,550 (Midland) and $1,212,787 (Odessa) received in the F.Y. 2003 outlay in these reports. I suspect all of that money went to buses, signs, shelters and consultants. Since this was essentially start-up money, lets throw those outlays out and just look at the annual costs to run the thing
Now what about passengers? The NTD report says EZ-Rider had 226,215 normal and 6,652 para-transit passengers for a grand total of 232,867 "Unlinked Passenger Trips"
Unlinked passenger trips (UPT) are the number of passengers who board public transportation vehicles. Passengers are counted each time they board vehicles no matter how many vehicles they use to travel from their origin to their destination
OK, so how many riders is that? Well for a round trip a single person would make a minimum of 2 UPT's, however getting to most Midland/Odessa destinations via the fixed routes requires you to transfer at the Plaza or Mall (in Midland), so each person would be about 4 UPT's per round trip. So total UTP's divided by 4 is about 58,217 round trip riders a year. This number is pretty close to the Ridership numbers quouted by EZ-Rider.
So, $1,513,463 divided by 58,217 round-trips is $25.9969 or $26 each round trip.
What is this for the Maximum user, the guy who rides the bus to and from work 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year? $6,760.00 A YEAR The State and Local share (37%) is $2,501.20, while the rider picks up around $608.40, and the Feds pick up the rest.
The rider seems to be picking up more than the $520 is should cost them, but my figures include the more expensive para-transit and I'm sure they count the revenue from unused monthly passes (many of which are purhcased with federal $ from other programs).
So what do we get, we get a transit system that essentially transports 224 people to and from work each day for $26 a round trip per day. (58,217 / 5 days / 52 weeks)
According to the Texas Workforce Commission, there are 127,962 workers in Midland/Odessa (Nov 2005) so 0.18% of the labor force uses public transportation to get to work.
Ohh wait, I forgot to add EZ-Riders 29 employees. I guess 253 people use the transit system to get to work each day.
Remember, these are 2004 numbers, EZ-Rider has said they had a big increase in ridership in 2005. I guess when the NTD has the 2005 numbers ready (maybe in May or June) we should see the $26 per round trip (user paying $2, Local & State $9.60 and the Feds $14.40) impriove a little bit. However, with the increase in fuel prices, the increase in round-trips may put us in worse shape.
Originally posted in the comments at Jessica's Well.
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