In an effort to increase funding for Gainesville’s bus service, the city commission on Aug. 7 voted to lease six Regional Transit Service buses to Six Flags Entertainment Corp.
The commission approved a two-year lease with Six Flags Entertainment for $932,212.
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward told The Sun that the agreement was made to cope with some of the funding lost from the University of Florida.
Ward said one of the ways the city is making up the budget shortfall is by leasing city-owned buses to other organizations.
“Whether they’re municipalities or any organizations that need buses, we put them on the market and Six Flags responded to our notice that they were able to lease,” Ward said.
Ward said he’s not sure which Six Flags locations the six leased buses would be sent.
During the Aug. 7 commission meeting, Ward said more people are going to need access to bus service this fall after UF set a new policy that mandates that all employees still working hybrid or remote schedules return to full in-person work.
UF spokesperson Steve Orlando told The Sun on July 24 that of the university’s roughly 32,000 employees, about 3,200 work a hybrid schedule and 320 are fully remote.
“I want everyone to be fully aware that when you see more cars on the road and you wonder why it takes you so long to get where you used to quickly, this is why,” Ward said. “When a funding partner yanks out a huge chunk of the money, you damage the system, and you can’t get back at that level of service.”
The University of Florida in an emailed statement to The Sun said that it appreciates its partnership with the city of Gainesville and looks forward to continuing to work with the city while making sure it is doing what is best for students.
The funding loss from UF has reduced RTS’ operating budget from $12.7 million to $9.8 million a year — a decrease of around 22%, according to a June city press release. In the press release, it said UF is reallocating some of its resources toward campus-specific transit options like the Campus Connector shuttle service.
City staff presented to the commission a summary of proposed service changes and said after comparing last fall’s services to this fall’s proposed services, RTS would see a decrease from 40 routes to 26.
Staff continued that Routes 122, 125 and 150 would be replaced by UF Campus Connector routes while Route 118 would retain its service and have two buses on the route with Route 126 having weekend availability from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
UF funded routes would see many routes merge, including Routes 12, 34 and 35 to become Route 12; Routes 17 and 16 to become Route 17; Routes 20 and 21 would become Route 20; and it is proposed that Routes 9 and 38 would revert back to their original alignments. Additionally, Routes 1,12,13,17,20 would undergo alignment changes and increase frequency of buses for Routes 1, 20 and 37.
Routes 5,8,17 and 43, which are funded by the city and county and Santa Fe College, also would be reduced. Regarding alignment changes, Routes 3, 6,7 and 75 would see alignment changes, while Route 23 would be extended to Butler Plaza from The Oaks Mall.
City Manager Cynthia Curry said the city received word from UF last week that there is some discussion for the university to partially fund Routes 5 and 8, depending on the cost.
In an effort to ease the bus service’s financial hardship, MV Senior Vice President of Operations Randy Frantz sent a letter to Commissioner Ed Book on Aug. 12 informing him that the paratransit service provider is prepared to offer the city an immediate rate reduction from $67.73 a ride to $63.60 a ride.
Frantz said current projections indicate a rider volume of 51,566 annual passengers, and with the proposed rate reduction in place, it would save the city about $213,000 annually.
The city commission will look to approve RTS fall schedule at its next meeting on Aug. 14.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: City of Gainesville officials finding new ways to cope with loss of RTS funding from UF
Reporting by Elliot Tritto, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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