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Why a Bus Fee Increase is Needed

Learn why a bus fee increase is needed at Texas State University due to contract expiration, fleet age, and service level problems. Take action now to ensure improved transportation services on campus.

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Why a Bus Fee Increase is Needed

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  1. Why a Bus Fee Increase is Needed • Texas State’s current bus contract expires the end of fiscal year 2014 (August 2014). • 10 year bus contract plus one extension year

  2. Texas State currently pays $72.42/hour for the cost of service to the contractor. This does not include cost of: • diesel • Texas State staff to monitor the service (one full time manager, 50% for a Director, 50% for Administrative Assistant, student wages) • NextBus system • administrative fee collected by Texas State on every auxiliary account • The student fee is currently $78.00

  3. The Board of Regents tuition and fee policy precluded any increases in fees for fiscal year 2014 which covers 9/1/2013-8/31/2014. This resulted in: • A May 2012 motion to increase the bus fee from $78 to $95 for fall 2014, pending a successful student referendum. The legislative cap is $100. • The proposed $95 fee is based on a report from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M. It is believed the best rate per hour we can expect to receive in a new contract will be 20% higher. ($72.42 x 1.2 = $86.90).

  4. A Request for Proposals (RFP) process is needed to occur to obtain a new contract. • The tuition and fee policy was not announced in time to allow for responses to an RFP to be returned and analyzed by the May 2012 Board of Regents meeting • It would not have been fair to the students to hold a referendum in the summer. • The RFP process began in February 2013 with proposals returned in March 2013 • The new contract will go to the May 2013 Board of Regents meeting for approval • The new contract goes into affect August 2014 • Companies need one year lead time to purchase, outfit and paint the bus fleet

  5. The tuition and fee policy also resulted in a one year extension of the current bus contract (August 2013-August 2014) because of the timing. • The minimum increase for the contract extension will be 3.25%. • The extension rate is estimated to be $74.77/hour

  6. Many of the current service level problems resulted because: • The age of the current fleet - leading to excessive down time for maintenance and repair • 1998-13 (have exceeded their useful life in years), • 2003-5 (are at 75% of their useful life in years), • 2006-23 (are at 50% of their useful life in years), • 2011-4 (used for BTI, in one year have used 12% of useful life in miles, will exceed their useful life in 8 years instead of 12if the BTI was continued) • Lack of sufficient number of trained drivers (bus contractor penalized $112,500 for missed laps due to no drivers from August thru November)

  7. The loss of a year’s service on one of the BTI buses (owned by Texas State) as a result of an accident in November 2012. Contractor brought in 3 MCIs for the BTI route that were no longer under contract in Minneapolis. • No contractor will purchase additional buses at the end of a contract because they cannot recoup their expense • Cost of a bus for in town use is $325,000 • Cost of a bus for highway use is $680,000 • Construction on and around the campus (having to reroute the buses south of campus)

  8. What can you expect to get under a new contract with a fee increase? • New fleet (fleet costing approximately $13M) • 60,000 service hours (current contract is at 51,000 service hours excluding the BTI, resulting in 9,000 more local service hours, or 17.5% increase, or 5 more buses) • “Point-to-point” service from the Quad to the Mill Street Lot and back (no stops) • Restoration to the Campus Loop route of service to the Speck Street Lot and Speck Garage

  9. If a fee increase is not approved, what can you expect? • Drop in service hours • Elimination of Saturday routes • 0.1% passenger boardings at $24.49 cost per passenger boarding • Elimination of night routes • 0.8% passenger boardings at $4.45 cost per passenger boarding • Elimination of the Wonder World route • 271,143 passenger boardings as opposed to the average of 395,385 of the routes • Elimination of the new “point-to-point” service to Mill Street Lot • Elimination of the restored service on the Campus Loop route to the Speck Lot and Speck Garage • Modification to other routes (fewer buses per route and/or less frequent service)

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