Mat-Su bus services create plan to consolidate

MAT-SU — In reaction to a state mandate, the bus services in Mat-Su have until Jan. 1, 2015, to come up with a plan to turn four bus services into one.

Or is it two? It’s not actually clear right now.

“We got a letter from the state of Alaska I think it was about five or six months ago saying that all the transportation providers had to consolidate,” said Jennifer Tew, executive director of Valley Mover.

The letter, dated May 27 and signed by Eric Taylor, Transit Program Manager for the Alaska Department of Transportation, says that the state will only hand federal transit money out to one organization.

There are four bus services in Mat-Su that qualify for the funding: Sunshine Transit in the Talkeetna/Sunshine area; Chickaloon Area Transit System, which is a service the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council offers; Valley Mover; and Mat-Su Area Community Transit — also known as MASCOT.

According to MASCOT executive director Naomi Nelson, only three of those organizations are currently receive federal pass funds — Chickaloon is the only one that isn’t — and therefore any combined organization would probably take on the Sunshine, MASCOT, and Valley Mover routes.

That money is not insubstantial. Tew said that Valley Mover’s cost to provide one person a ride is $12. But its one-way fare, as listed on the service’s web page, is $7. The remaining $5 is paid using federal dollars.

Tew said that since the letter arrived in May the Mat-Su Transit Coalition has met twice each month to come up with some kind of a plan.

According to Nelson, that plan is due Jan. 5, 2015. By July 1, 2015 — the start of the state’s fiscal year — the Department of Transportation expects that the coalition will begin implementing the plan, with full implementation by July 1, 2016.

“The majority of that work is really going to come once we start implementing that plan,” Nelson said.

So why the consolidation? It’s not because they’re duplicating services. There isn’t a whole lot of overlap between the various providers. Chickaloon and Sunshine service a particular region. MASCOT tends to focus local routes through Valley neighborhoods. It’s publicly available transportation but it also offers on-demand service for people who qualify. Finally, Valley Mover does commuter routes, shuttling people back and forth between the Valley and Anchorage each day.

Nelson said that where the duplication comes in is with overhead and administrative costs. Consolidation, she said, would mean that more of the money would go into routes and buses rather than into office staff and oversight.

“I think anybody would be hard-pressed to argue with that logic because that’s what we’re all about is moving people,” Nelson said.

The letter from the state told Mat-Su transit providers what they needed to do but left the details of what that consolidated organization would look like up to the locals.

Nelson said there are a lot of different concerns to iron out. For instance, Sunshine Transit has a lot of community buy-in through matching funds that keep the service running. Would consolidation mean those funds were less likely to be donated?

“That is a big concern that they have expressed and I would say the same thing,” Nelson said.

For her part, Tew said that it’s really too early to say how the whole thing is going to shake out.

“I have no idea how it’s going to turn out,” Tew said.

Nelson compared the Valley’s transit system to Anchorage’s, where the People Mover system is part of the Municipality of Anchorage, which supports it financially. The Mat-Su Borough, meanwhile, stays out of transit.

“They’ve certainly provided financial support here and there but transportation has never been a line item in the budget,” Nelson said.

When the systems are consolidated and the Mat-Su Health Foundation wraps up a study it commissioned on economic impact of transit it’s currently conducting, Nelson said the goal will be to go to the borough and ask for some kind of steady funding.

“We’re getting everybody together so we can try to make a case to the borough what an economic driver transit is,” Nelson said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.1