TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Marisa Lundstedt, Community Development Director
Nhung Madrid, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Two-Year Cost Sharing Agreement Not-to-Exceed $34,456 for Beach Cities Transit Line 109 for Fiscal Years 15-16 and 16-17 with the Cities of Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo (Community Development Director Lundstedt).
APPROVE AND APPROPRIATE
Line
_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Approve a two-year cost sharing agreement for an amount not-to-exceed $34,456 for Beach Cities Transit Line 109 for Fiscal Years 15-16 and 16-17 with the Cities of Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo contingent upon all cities participating;
2. Transfer $2,814 from the Measure R Fund to the Proposition A Fund; and
3. Appropriate $2,814 from Proposition A funds to cover the balance of the FY 2015-2016 funding level.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Historically, the participating Cities of Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo have contributed towards the cost sharing agreement for the operation of Beach Cities Transit (BCT) Line 109. As shown in Attachment 1, Manhattan Beach’s investment in Line 109 has significantly decreased since the first agreement in 2006.
For FY 2015-2016, the shortfall projections for the Line are estimated at $95,417, of which Manhattan Beach’s proportionate share is $15,314. While it is anticipated that Metro transit fund allocations will continue to be positive, the operating costs have increased due to the transit contract with Transportation Concepts and an anticipated increase in fuel costs.
The FY 2015-2016 Adopted Budgeted includes $12,500 for the Beach Cities Transit cost sharing contract. To meet the requested funding level in FY 2015-2016 ($15,314), an additional appropriation from Proposition A of $2,814 is required. However, Proposition A activities (primarily Dial-A-Ride) exceed available resources, and require a subsidy from Measure R (which funds may be used for the same purposes). As a result, the City must also transfer $2,814 in Measure R funds to Proposition A in order to fund the additional appropriation. The FY 2015-2016 Adopted Budget includes a Measure R transfer to Proposition A of $189,145. The requested additional transfer of $2,814 will increase the FY 15-16 Measure R transfer to $191,959.
If approved, the FY 2016-2017 (2nd year) funding will be included in that year’s operating budget.
BACKGROUND:
In general, in Los Angeles County, most cities are served by Metro bus services, which is a County operation that is funded from Local Return funds and other State and Federal Funding and fares. In addition to Metro services, several other larger cities operate their own transit service such as Torrance, Gardena, Culver City, Santa Monica and Long Beach to name a few.
Since 2006, the Cities of Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo have participated in a cost-sharing agreement to mutually fund the operating costs incurred by BCT Line 109. The Line absorbed the portion of Line 439 that was discontinued by Metro, as well as other beach area public transportation. The route was 12.7 miles and ran along the coastline from the southern terminus in Redondo Beach Riviera Village to LAX City Bus Center.
In 2009, the Line expanded to include discontinued portions of Metro routes 124 and 125, eliminated the route on Vista Del Mar and re-routed the Line adding service miles along Rosecrans Avenue and added stops at the Douglas Green Line Station, Plaza El Segundo and Aviation Green Line Station before reaching its final stop at the LAX City Bus Center. This expansion resulted in realignment of the line, route and frequency changes, and additional service hours and miles (18.6 miles northbound and 16.3 miles southbound) to the route.
In 2011, Redondo Beach completed a Comprehensive Operational Analysis for their Beach Cities Transit program which provided a detailed analysis of service and patronage data, ridership and performance measures, ridership demographics, travel information and an overall assessment of potential improvements to the transit network to enhance mobility and efficiency. Through this analysis, Line 109 was re-routed to add a new stop in Manhattan Beach at Manhattan Village Mall located on Village Drive at Parkview Avenue. This re-route has had negligible impacts on cost but has benefitted the community to provide increased access to the Manhattan Village Mall, the senior housing facility and commercial businesses along Rosecrans Avenue and Parkview Avenue.
DISCUSSION:
In October 2014, the existing transit operations contractor, Transportation Concepts was renewed for the contract period effective January 2015 through June 30, 2018.
In 2015, several enhancements have been implemented for Line 109 which include the placement of three new buses into service for the Line; the installation of new signage for all stops throughout the entire route as well as “At Stop” panel signs at key bus stop locations to illustrate destination information, the time schedule for the specific stop, and travel time from the specific stop to key destinations on Line 109 route (Attachment 2). In addition, BCT buses now accept Metro TAP cards for fare payment using Metro EZ Pass, Stored Value and Access TAP cards to provide more efficient payment options for their patrons.
Funding
Beach Cities Transit receives funding from Metro to support transit operations. Funding distribution is provided through a formula used to allocate federal and state bus transit funds among the various transit agencies in Los Angeles County. The allocations are calculated using farebox revenues and vehicle service miles.
At present, Beach Cities Transit’s fare of $1.00 is consistent with other local agencies including Torrance, Gardena, Santa Monica, Culver City and Long Beach, with the exception of Metro which has a fare of $1.75. Fare increases tend to have a corresponding decrease in ridership, which for a bus line like Line 109, would not be able to absorb the loss in fare revenues and would more than likely result in increased cost-sharing contributions from the participating cities. In addition, because the City of Redondo Beach receives Federal funding to purchase vehicles, under Title VI, Civil Rights Regulation, any changes to the fare would require a Fair Equity Analysis to be performed to determine that there isn’t any Disparate Treatment or Disparate Impact because of race, color or national origin.
Cost-Sharing Agreement
The Hermosa Beach City Council approved a two-year cost sharing agreement at their June 9, 2015 City Council meeting, and the El Segundo City Council approved a two-year cost sharing agreement at their June 16, 2015 City Council meeting. Redondo Beach is expected to take the final agreement to their City Council in August after all participating Cities have presented the agreements to their respective City Councils.
Staff liaisons from all of the participating cities continue to meet quarterly to exchange transit line service data information (Attachment 3), discuss service issues, vehicle acquisition, and marketing and public outreach efforts.
CONCLUSION:
If approved, staff will continue to work cooperatively with the participating Cities to identify and implement marketing strategies and service modifications as deemed necessary. Joyce Rooney, Transit Operations & Transportation Facilities Manager from Redondo Beach will be in attendance at tonight’s meeting to answer any question the City Council may have regarding Beach Cities Transit Line 109 and the cost sharing agreement.
Attachments:
1. Beach Cities Transit Line 109 Contributions 2006-2017
2. At Stop Signage Details
3. Ridership Data
4. Cost Sharing Agreement