How to Save the MBTA Over $1. Million a Year. The first step in reforming the MBTA has been taken by the Legislature and the Governor. It included the establishment of a Finance and Management Control Board focused on the Authority. The suggestions are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather are suggestions to get that effort started. Cumulatively, the MBTA could garner $1. Applications Profile Account Sign Out Welcome! Thanks for creating an account. Click the button below to download a pdf version of this brief, or scroll down to read the rest below. Recommendation 1: Terminate current contracts for The Ride and convert MBTA paratransit services to the model employed by the Human Services Transportation Office (HST) of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and Massachusetts Regional Transit Authorities. Potential savings: $5. As Figure 1 below shows, as of April 2. MBTA contracts for The Ride totaling $6. FY2. 01. 5 to FY2. The contracts have a two- year extension option that brings the potential total to $9. Figure 1. MBTA Contracts for The Ride, 2. Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes. Area. Definitions. FY2. 01. 5- FY2. 01. FY2. 02. 0- FY2. 02. Total. North area – Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS)$1. West area - Veterans Transportation, LLC$2. South area - National Express Transit Corporation (NE)$1. MRC TRANSPORTATION RESOURCE: The RIDE. The MBTA RIDE Program. Individuals with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations with public transportation due to. MBTA officials say they are pursuing a similar partnership with ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft. If the MBTA is able to expand the program, officials. Multi-ride tickets can be purchased at any of our retail locations or at MBTA pass sales offices. The RIde Program, RIPTA’S ADA Comparable Paratransit Service required by federal law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). New Eligibility Process for the MBTA’s Metro West RTA and The Ride. Posted: January 15, 2013. MBTA The Ride (ADA Paratransit Program) 10 Park Plaza Room 4730; Boston MA 02116; Phone: 617-222-5123. Qualifying Ride customers will be eligible for a means-based fare structure, receiving a $1 discount on trips under a new pilot program that will begin at. Totals$6. 02,4. 84,8. To provide a better cost picture for The Ride relative to the value of its contracts, we compare the costs of its service to HST. This amount is virtually one- third the cost per trip of The Ride. HST produces savings in addition to the per- trip rate because, unlike the MBTA, it does not provide its transportation vendors with taxpayer- supplied vans and vehicles. HST. HST uses a model under which a paratransit broker contracts with 3. Mass. Health clients on a price- per- trip basis. The broker is responsible for scheduling, reservations and dispatching vehicles. Since 8. 6 percent of HST Mass. Health paratransit trips do not require wheelchair- accessible vehicles, local cab companies and drivers who have passed background checks provide most of the HST service. More than 8. 0 percent of The Ride. Each HST broker administers transportation services by subcontracting with qualified transportation providers in their HST area(s). In contrast, the MBTA awards exclusive paratransit contracts to three vendors, each of which is responsible for a large service area. The three operate jointly in the core area of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. Figure 2 shows the operating expense per passenger trip for The Ride and HST Mass. Health demand- response paratransit service. Figure. 2. Operating Expense per Passenger Trip: The Ride and HST Mass. Health, 2. 00. 5- 2. Another element of The Ride contracts that is counterproductive to cost- containment is a provision that allows The Ride contractors, not the MBTA, to control reservations, scheduling and trip planning. This provision of the MBTA. In other words, the contractors make more money by avoiding shared rides. NTD data indicates that in 2. The Ride had an average of 0. The MBTA. During the first three years of the contracts, the service providers will continue to handle reservations, scheduling and dispatching, along with their other responsibilities for delivering service. This responsibility may continue in years four and five, and into the option period if exercised. If the MBTA pursues a change, the call and control center would likely be established by the beginning of year four, with service provider reservations, scheduling and dispatching functions transferred during that year. The centralized call and control center would be managed by a paratransit call and control center management firm retained by the MBTA under a separate procurement. Another provision of the contract provides that if the MBTA centralizes its paratransit call center function, the T service providers will be paid a fixed amount per van ride and another for a sedan ride. If the MBTA establishes a centralized call center in 2. Much of this benefit, however, would be negated by the fact that the current service providers have a sedan per- trip contract already in place. So long as the MBTA gives sole providers exclusive rights in each district, it will never be able to reap the financial benefits of the broker operational model that has benefitted HST. A second major reason why HST. Curb- to- curb service saves time by eliminating the time- consuming and expensive requirement that the driver park the vehicle and accompany a passenger door- to- door when it is not necessary to do so. ADA regulations allow paratransit operators to offer curb- to- curb service, so long as the driver assists passengers door- to- door when requested or otherwise needed. This is the level of service that HST requires its transportation vendors to provide. A Federal Transit Administration guidance document explains: . The draft contract seems to allow the MBTA to do so. A provision of the draft contract included in the Request for Proposal (RFP) provides that: . Figures 3 and 4 provide projected annual passenger trips and the annual budgets for The Ride, the RTAs and HST. These are taken from the MBTA. The RTA and HST per- trip rates use FY2. Projected Passenger Trips and Service Costs per Passenger Trip, 2. FY2. 01. 6FY2. 01. FY2. 01. 8FY2. 01. FY2. 02. 0FY2. 02. Projected trips per RFP2,0. The Ride ($ per trip)$5. HST Mass. Health ($ per trip)$1. RTA average $ (per trip)$2. Annual Total Costs for The Ride, RTAs, and HST, millions, 2. Comparative. Service. FY2. 01. 6FY2. 01. FY2. 01. 8FY2. 01. FY2. 02. 0FY2. 02. Totals. The Ride*$1. RTA$6. 0. 4$6. 6. HST Mass. Health$4. If cost per passenger trip was reduced to the level of Mass. Health. Savings Calculated by RTA and HST Efficiency, millions, 2. Comparative. Service. FY2. 01. 6FY2. 01. FY2. 01. 8FY2. 01. FY2. 02. 0FY2. 02. Totals. The Ride vs RTAs$5. The Ride vs HST Mass. Health$6. 9. 5$7. Potential savings: $4. The principal reason for the MBTA. Of 4. 25 bus transit agencies in the US in 2. MBTA had the highest bus maintenance cost per hour of bus operation. This cost is attributable in large part to its high maintenance staffing and labor hours per vehicle mile: the MBTA has 5. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and incorporated in the FTA- sponsored Integrated National Transit Database Analysis System (INTDAS). Its maintenance costs per bus mile are 9. Bus Repair and Maintenance Cost Efficiency, the MBTA versus INTDAS Peers. Figures 6 through 1. MBTA. The goal of this analyses is to understand what has driven the elevated maintenance costs at the MBTA. In this section and the section below, we explore a number of potential drivers of the T. In doing so, we use a variety of comparisons, including comparisons to the MBTA. Had the MBTA reduced its total bus maintenance expenses per revenue mile in 2. INTDAS peers, it would have saved $4. Over the 1. 0- year period from 2. MBTA incurred bus maintenance costs per mile of $3. Had the MBTA operated at the average maintenance cost per revenue mile of its peer agencies over that period, it would have saved more than $2. Figure 6. Vehicle maintenance cost per revenue mile, MBTA compared to INTDAS peers, 2. Again, as the figure shows, the MBTA had the highest maintenance cost per revenue hour in 2. Had the MBTA reduced its total bus maintenance expenses per revenue hour in 2. INTDAS peers, it would have saved $4. Over the 1. 0- year period from 2. MBTA had bus maintenance costs per hour of $3. Had the MBTA operated at the average cost per revenue hour of its peer agencies over that period, it would have saved $1. Figure 7. Bus maintenance expense per revenue hour, MBTA compared to INTDAS peers, 2. Transit Agency. Maintenance /VRM 2. Maintenance/VRM. Figure 8 shows that the MBTA had the greatest number of maintenance work hours per vehicle revenue mile of the INTDAS peer agencies in 2. This is 6. 5. 7 percent higher than the 3. Had the MBTA reduced its total bus maintenance work hours per vehicle revenue mile in 2. INTDAS peers, it would have reduced its total work hours by more than 5. Looking back five years earlier, we see that the same phenomenon occurred in 2. MBTA incurred 4. 9. In that year, the MBTA paid its bus maintenance employees to provide 5. As the subsequent charts show, the average MBTA bus was 1. INTDAS peers in 2. The same disproportionately high number of work hours per vehicle hour occurred five years earlier in 2. MBTA paid for 6. 0. Had the MBTA reduced its total bus maintenance work hours per vehicle revenue hour in 2. INTDAS peers, it would have reduced its total work hours by more than 4. Figure 8. Bus maintenance work hours per revenue mile and revenue hour, MBTA compared to INTDAS peers, 2. Transit Agency. Work hours/1. K VRM 2. 01. 3Work hours/1. K VRM 2. 00. 9Work hours/1. VRH 2. 00. 9Work hours/1. VRH 2. 01. 3Boston – MBTA5. Philadelphia – SEPTA3. Washington, D. C. The inverse way to express this statistic is to say that the average peer agency had 3. MBTA had. The next closest agency with respect to staffing per vehicle mile in the peer group was Washington, D. C. The MBTA employs 7. In 2. 00. 9, the MBTA employed 4. High MBTA staffing levels are evidenced by a comparison of maintenance employees per bus revenue hour, with the MBTA exceeding the average of its peer agencies by 4. Figure 9. Bus maintenance employee count per revenue mile and revenue hour, MBTA compared to INTDAS peers, 2. Transit Agency. Employee count/1. K VRM 2. 01. 3Employee count/1. K VRM 2. 00. 9Employee count/1. K VRH 2. 01. 3Employee count/1. K VRH 2. 00. 9Boston – MBTA2. Philadelphia – SEPTA2. Washington, D. C. Given the data previously presented herein, including data showing that that the MBTA. Figure 1. 0 presents NTD data about the age of the MBTA. Over the most recent 1. NTD, 2. 00. 4- 2. MBTA bus was 8. 0. INTDAS peer group average of 7. For the most recent eight- year period, the average age of an active MBTA bus was 7. INTDAS peer group average of 7. MBTA. It seems unlikely that these small differences could be responsible for overall maintenance cost differences of the magnitude previously described.
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