The Future of the Woodlands Express Park & Ride

As a member of The Woodlands Township Ad Hoc Transportation Committee, I would like to try to clear the air regarding recent articles and letters regarding the possible purchase by the Township of new buses for the Woodlands Express Park and Ride.  First, let me say that the Board has not made a firm decision to do anything other than to continue to evaluate our options. But it is clear that change is needed. 

I am sure many of you have read about the new Conroe-Woodlands Urbanized Area (UZA). This new area was created by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) due to our increased population of 240,000. This decision moved our area from a rural designation to an urban area where the Township now directly receives FTA funds in support of our transit programs. The new urban area includes portions or all of The Township, the Cities of Conroe, Cut and Shoot, Oak Ridge North, Panorama Village, Shenandoah, Woodloch, and some unincorporated portions of South County. As of October 1, 2012, The Township Board and the City of Conroe were approved by the FTA as the dual designated recipients charged with managing the FTA funds allocated to the UZA. This decision resulted in the transfer of responsibility for the Woodlands Express Park and Ride from the Brazos Transit District to The Township. Brazos now serves as a contractor to The Township. 

In considering how to adapt to the change to the new UZA, The Township could have elected to bow out of taking on any UZA role. In such a scenario, the City of Conroe would have become responsible for how FTA transit dollars are allocated within our area.  But would such a decision be in the best interest of our residents? Would such a decision have put us at risk of simply becoming a “stopover” to a new Conroe Park and Ride?  

In making the decision to share in the management of the new UZA, the Board elected to retain control over our own destiny and make sure we looked after the transit interest of our residents. However, in fulfilling our new UZA role, a stipulation of the FTA funding is that the park and ride service meet the needs of the broader South County community and not just our ridership. Today, only 60% of the riders live within The Township. If The Township taxpayers were funding any part of the service, this would be inequitable and a problem. However, since the park and ride has been completely self funding through ridership fees and FTA funding, this has never been an issue. The Township’s objective is to make sure “who pays” never becomes an issue by insuring the park and ride continues to fund itself with no local taxpayer subsidies.

 

The Woodlands Express has existed for over 25 years. It is a very important service to approximately 1,700 people who ride the 33 buses out of three locations. The facilities were all built by the Brazos Transit District with federal dollars on land donated by the Woodlands Development Company. In May 2013, 31,889 round trips (39 routes) were made to Downtown Houston, the Medical Center and Greenway Plaza.  This is a significant growth over the 9 buses providing 12 round trips out of the Sawdust location in 1987. The Woodlands Express is an important attractor to residents who wish to live in the Woodlands but work in Houston.  

The benefits of the Woodlands Express Park & Ride are:

· Reduces congestion (Imagine an 1,600 cars on I-45 each day)

· Reduces emissions (59 tons/day reduction ¹)

· Saves Gas (6,080 gallons/day ¹)

· Saves Money (wear/tear on Car, $9.02 trip or $18.04/day ¹)

· Saves money on parking

· Less stress

· More convenient

· Provides a selling feature to attract S. Montgomery County residents to remain or locate in our community.

For the first 6 months of 2013, one current rider provided the following interesting information ¹ :

· Bus Trips Made: 279

· Miles not put on their car: 11, 382.6 miles

· Gas not purchased: 517.4 gallons

· Their savings to date for 2013: $2,511.88

· Total Emission Reductions: 5.1 Tons (Nitrogen Oxides: 31.24 lbs, Volatile Organic Compounds: 11.43 lbs and Carbon Dioxide: 10,140.9 lbs)

(¹ Source: NuRide: www.nuride.com)

The above information continues to reinforce the fact that, since its inception, the Woodlands Express has been one of the most successful operations in the nation. The Woodlands Township recent ridership survey shows that 93% of the riders believe they receive value from using the park and ride.  

Until 2010, approximately 85% of the cost of the park and ride was funded from ridership fees, with the remainder coming from federal subsidies. It has required no local subsidies. But this favorable financial picture began to change with the bankruptcy of the old bus operator. The cost of the replacement bus operator has now increased by 40% -- $126 to $176 per service hour. This rate includes the bus operator providing all the buses needed. This “turnkey” approach is the most expensive option for providing the service. It also limits the number of bus operators qualified to bid on the service.  In addition, the current fleet is now 10-12 years old resulting in increased complaints regarding the quality of the park and ride experience. In order to provide newer 2011/12 buses, Brazos has begun to use a new bus operator at the Sterling Ridge location. But the cost of this change has further increased the cost to $208/ hour- a 67% increase over the cost of the old bus operator in 2010.  

Under the current turnkey bus operator approach, this increased cost can no longer be absorbed solely through ridership fees and the FTA subsidies. There is a limit to what the FTA will fund.  The Township has developed 10 year financial projections covering several scenarios, including the status quo. The option of staying with the status quo is not a pretty one- it is estimated that if no change is made we will start to incur a funding deficit in 2019. This will be a deficit that local taxpayers will have to fund. We have time to reverse this picture. The Township needs to take a different approach. It is critical that we preserve our park and ride service but do so in a way that puts it back on the path of being a self funding operation. We must avoid any funding deficits and associated local taxpayer liabilities in the future.  Based on our understanding that federal monies will be available to cover 50% of the cost of the new buses, the bus purchase scenario appears to be the most attractive option to achieving these objectives. Ownership of our buses will reduce the rising operating cost per service hour back to $126. This 40% cost reduction totally cover the cost to issue and repay the $10 million in bonds required to purchase the new buses. If we own our buses we will also have more options as to who we use to operate the buses. 

We still have more work to do before the Board is ready to make a firm decision. The bottom line is that under the bus purchase scenario approach it appears the Woodlands Express Park and Ride can be returned to a high quality, self sufficient position at no additional cost to our taxpayers now or in the future.  I believe this should be our goal.

November 11, 2013 update

Since I posted the above, we have developed  a better understanding of the bus purchase option. In my opinion, this option is not proving to be very risky and will not reduce the operating cost as much as we once thought- not onloy a 20% cost reduction is expected versus the orginal 40% reduction we wer told. With the recent fare increase, The Woodlands Express is now completly funding itself through the ridership fees and FTA grants. Thus, I do not think the potential operating cost  savings are not sufficently large enough to justify the risk of taking on a $10-11 million debt that the system would have to repay.

Mike Bass

The Woodlands Township, Director (Position 2)

Ad Hoc Transportation Committee

www.mikebassthewoodlands.blogspot.com

713-299-1184