The Fox Cities Transit Commission met 07/22/2025. It was a short meeting lasting only around 17 minutes during which they approved the June payments and gave authorization to execute a cooperative agreement between Valley Transit, WisDOT, and the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. They also received three reports.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
APPROVAL OF JUNE 2025 PAYMENTS – Kristin Stohl, the Enterprise Account Manager at Valley Transit, told the committee that most of the June payments were standard but she highlighted three of them. The $29,759.50 payment to TransTrack was Valley Transit’s annual payment for its primary database software. The $150,000 payment to the City of Appleton was for the purchase of the vacant lot behind the Transit Center. The $14,666.37 payment to Faith Technologies was for the access control system at the Whitman Avenue transit facility.
AUTHORIZATION TO EXECUTE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN VALLEY TRANSIT, WISDOT, AND EAST CENTRAL WISCONSIN REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION – This was an agreement that Valley Transit was required by the federal government to have in order to receive federal money. It related to planning efforts.
FINANCIAL REPORT JUNE 2025 – At this point in the year, they should be at roughly 50% of their estimated budget for both revenues and expenses. Fare revenue through June was only at about 35%. Part of that was due to a delay in posting some of June’s deposits to the general ledger. [It was not stated how much of that 15 point different between 35% and 50% could be attributed to delayed recording of June revenue.] Additional revenue was primarily advertising revenue; that also was at 35% compared to the budget.
Total operating expenses at the end of June were at 49% of the budget. Expenses related to Purchased Transportation were at only 36%. Ms. Stohl noted that they were over budget in overtime; however overall salary and fringe benefits remained under budget. Recruitment expenses were also overbudget as they continued to try to hire more drivers.
Purchased services were overbudget at 64% but that included snow removal services which they would not see again until the end of the year. Additionally, software expenses as a percentage of the budget started out high because they purchase software support in one lump sum at the beginning of the year, but as a percentage it would go down as the year progressed.
Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald noted that Valley Transit had not received its federal and state checks yet and they would be receiving some additional money that would offset some expenses. He expected to see some state and federal dollars start coming in within the next 30 days.
RIDERSHIP REPORT JUNE 2025 – June 2025 fixed route ridership was down 13% compared to June 2024 ridership which was a decrease of about 6,400 rides. This was the result of the decrease in fixed route hours implemented in July of 2024. Ridership through the ADA and ancillary services increased 16% compared to 2024 which was an increase of roughly 1,060 rides. Transit Commissioner Larry Wurdinger thought that a decrease of only 13% was really good because they had cut transit service by more than 13%.
2ND QUARTER KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS – Transit Operations Specialist David Vickman went over the 2nd Quarter report, which was fairly straightforward.
On-time performance had been good in March and April but, after that, had been impacted by construction season. There were currently 9 roads on detour, and bus times tended to lag on detour routes because (a) the routes themselves were longer and (b) a lot of additional traffic takes the same detour route. As construction season winded down, Mr. Vickman expected on-time performance to improve.
In May they dropped below their target for total miles between major system failures. Mr. Vickman noted that their bus fleet was reaching its midlife, but, in general, they should consistently stay above their target of 7,500 miles between road calls or major system failures.
In May, the number of complaints they received per 100,000 passenger trips was above target. The types of complaints they receive range from things like a driver passing by a passenger because he didn’t see them standing at a bus stop to a passenger not liking a driver’s attitude. Mr. Vickman noted that when buses were on detour routes, they tended to get more complaints. When a complaint came in, the operation team worked with the driver to resolve the situation.
In the second quarter of 2025, they have not had any significant safety events. There was one in the first quarter.
Passengers per revenue hour had dipped slightly below the target in June. That was not surprising because ridership numbers normally decrease in the summer when school is out.
They were meeting their performance goals in all other areas.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1302746&GUID=3E92ED23-5987-4A9D-82A0-733E607DDC42
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