By: Diane Benjamin
If only they had spent a little more on consulting and architects for bus stops, they could have made it to $1,000,000 lost in ONE MONTH:
Cost per trip is now a whooping $9.26, last April it was $3.30.
Cost for Connect Mobility is far worse: $117.13 per rider. Last year it was $25.21.
Fixed route passengers per hour in April was 11.42, last year it was 26.31. Total ridership was 87,568 – last year was 248,258.
Connect Mobility has 1.67 riders per hour, last year it was 2.98. Total ridership was 1,982, last year it was 8,054.
See the chart on PDF page 21.
Playing with rates is back on the agenda – see PDF page 26.
If somebody had the goal of collapsing the system with debt and ridiculous spending they couldn’t have designed a better fleece than Connect Transit. A downtown transfer station is next. Keep in mind, this is happening across the country.
I wonder if anybody involved as heard people don’t want to ride public transpiration anymore because of the virus? https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a32463337/study-traffic-will-be-worse-after-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR3u2fjLQBMoNMTTILQ6HzHOshKfcvnauWIzSkHeLYTHU3SsBt_WLqhx-fk
Nothing about Connect Transit will change until YOU elect better people!
Click to access May%202020%20CT%20Board%20of%20Trustees%20Packet.pdf
The Connect Transit trough feeders, the local elitists, and the establishment pom-pom cheerleaders don’t see this as a $971,000+ loss because the losses are always covered (with taxpayer money by the way). Of course, the worse they do financially, the more the taxpayers have to cover. Instead, they point to specious stats like the number of riders (which is juiced due to transfers) and ISU students who have a “free” pass included in their tuition.
So much for helping the lower income people in the community. The only people who will be able to afford to ride PUBLIC transit will be the people who are driving the BMW’s and the Lexus everywhere!
I have been in the Blo-No area for 5.5 years. I have witnessed the change first hand. When you all decided to hire the guy who REDESIGN the bus routes that was the WORST IDEA EVER, nothing IS CONNECTED. THEN YOU CUT THE NIGHT RIDE OUT, THEN THE DRIVERS NO LONGER HAVE THAT PERSONALITY they had when I first started riding, they are like cold crackers. CHANGE YOUR NAME TO DISCONNECT TRANSIT, because you don’t connect with your riders anymore. That’s why