The Fox Cities Transit Commission met 09/24/2024. During that meeting they received the August Ridership Report, a staffing update, and an update on Valley Transit’s modifications to evening and Saturday service. I put all three of these reports together because they are all related. August’s ridership numbers were impacted by the service modifications, and the low staffing levels were what prompted the service modifications.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
In August, fixed route ridership was down by 21%, a decrease of around 11,500 rides compared to August 2023 numbers. This was the result of the service changes recently implemented at Valley Transit which ends fixed route bus service at 6PM on weekdays and 1PM on Saturdays.
Use of Demand Response services such as Valley Transit II and the Northern Winnebago Dial-a-Ride was also down by 8% or approximately 700 rides.
Valley Transit’s table of organization ostensibly contained 36 full time drivers. They currently had 24 full time drivers, 21 of which were scheduled daily and 3 of which were still in training. When the 3 in training were ready to drive, that would provide 120 hours of additional driving time per week.
They also had 7 part time drivers. 5 of those drivers were scheduled on a regular basis, 1 was in training, and 1 was currently out on long-term medical leave but was expected to return in the next couple weeks. Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald indicated that they could still use a couple more part time drivers.
The service modifications to fixed route bus schedules were now implemented and working like General Manager McDonald had expected they would. He noted that complaints were down which was a good thing.
People were now supposed to rely upon the Connector outside of the fixed route bus hours. General Manager McDonald reported that they had provided 81 connector trips on Monday, 09/23/2024, 59 on Saturday, 09/21/2024, 66 on Friday, 09/20/2024, and 102, on Thursday 09/19/2024. So use was ranging anywhere between 60 and 100, and he expected that to increase as people got used to it.
Commissioner Greg VandeHey indicated it was confusing to figure out what phone number to call for the Connector. General Manager McDonald said that if a person called the Valley Transit number while it was being operated they would pick up and transfer the call to the correct place. If someone called when the phone was not manned a voice recording would provide the correct number to call.
There was also a brief discussion about the logistics of using the Connector service and it was confirmed that once a location or a rider’s name was in the computer database, that information would auto populate when that person called in again in the future or when a rider wanted to go to that specific location again.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1195129&GUID=D1A3813D-FECE-4ABA-AE91-68BA0A1C5248
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