The Garden City Telegram
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Bus system ridership continues to increase
Published 7/11/2009 in Local News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
Like most department heads, Finney County Transit (FIT) Director Bonnie Burgardt will listen to and consider comments about the bus service she operates for the county and city.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram — Finney County Transit driver Tom Howard waits for riders at Dillons East on his City Link bus on Thursday morning. The bus, which has been in service three weeks is one of the newer in the fleet.
She's heard Finney County commissioners say they don't see anyone riding the buses around town. Most times, they'll tell her, they see either one or no passengers riding.
They've also told her they don't see as much need for City Link, the city's fixed-route bus service, as they do for Mini Bus, which serves the elderly and disabled population.
Most recently, comments floated back to Burgardt from the Garden City Commission town hall meeting held June 30 where resident Don Merideth said he doesn't feel the city should use tax dollars to operate City Link. Garden City isn't a New York City or Kansas City, Merideth said, and if the transit system can't support itself through ridership, the city shouldn't have the service.
Burgardt will listen, but that doesn't mean she has to agree.
She doesn't ... even in a tight budget year.
Because the need for the service is something she says she sees, hears and reads about every day.
Munoz and others
Evelia Munoz needs a ride a lot of the time.
But like others, she'd find a lift from friends or anyone who was willing when she needed it before City Link was created in September 2007. For about four years, Munoz walked or found a ride until City Link.
"It helps me a lot," Munoz said of the bus system.
She doesn't have a car. She doesn't drive. But she needs to get around — for groceries, medicine and medical treatment for herself and her family, including four children, Salvador, Griselda, Marcello and David. The children also participate in the Youth-Go-Free summer youth pass program, which is available to youth 16 years and younger when riding with a paying passenger. Burgardt has 203 children registered in the program.
The photo Burgardt captured and has posted on the bulletin board at the transit center, 1008 N. 11th St., is of Munoz and her four children. Munoz is holding a piece of paper that states City Link has provided 50,000 rides since its inception. Munoz and or one of her family members were the 50,000th rider. The benchmark comes nearly two years after Burgardt stood and watched the service's first bus take off from the Finney County Senior Center, where the old transit center was.
And Burgardt doesn't see City Link's ridership dropping off.
The need
Ridership has been gradually increasing — from January to June 2008, the service provided 9,330 rides, compared to a 123 percent increase with 20,847 rides in the same six-month period for 2009.
City Link averaged 198 passengers a day in June and 258 riders a day so far this month. One route hauled 102 people on July 7.
Public transit doesn't pay for itself, Burgardt said, and the only way a for-profit business could take it on is to set fares higher than most riders could afford.
The ridership typically can't afford the ride without it being subsidized, Burgardt said, which is why most transit services in communities are covered by tax dollars and other funding.
City Link receives no funding from the county. Instead, the county is proposed to fund Mini Bus at $73,021 for 2010, according to the Finney County Committee on Aging budget. The city covers 30 percent of City Link's expenses, with the other 70 percent coming from the state and federal governments.
City Link's total operating expense for 2010 is about $624,000, although the service recently was awarded $1.9 million in stimulus money through the Kansas Department of Transportation.
While Garden City is the smallest city with a fixed-route bus service in the state, Burgardt said, the community has a lot of demographics in play that other communities aren't facing.
- There's a larger minority population.
- A larger population of families have one or no cars.
- A large business recruits heavily from a population that doesn't come with their own transportation. Tyson Fresh Meats, Holcomb, picks up 50 free day passes every two weeks to give to new recruits.
Family Crisis Services recently bought tokens to transport the women and families the agency serves. And Garden City Community College buys tokens to transport refugees to and from language and other courses.
Big enough but just barely
Burgardt still isn't sure what bus people are seeing at what time to make them say they're not seeing anyone ride.
From her window in the transit center, Burgardt watches people get on and off all day, every day. When she rides the bus to and from work, she visits with riders on the bus.
"I don't know how to address that," she said of county commissioners, Merideth and others not seeing riders.
Another criticism during the June 30 town hall meeting was that City Link is expensive.
"You're absolutely right," Mayor Nancy Harness told Merideth at the meeting. City Link is expensive to run.
City commissioners said they'd never seen a public transit system operate in the black.
"That's the point," Merideth said.
Is the city big enough to have public transit, Harness asked.
"Just barely," she said, explaining the city wouldn't have taken on the service if the public had not expressed the need for transit.
The need was expressed about 15 years before the topic resurfaced in the mid-2000s, Burgardt said.
She sees the need every time Munoz and others step on the bus.
Burgardt will continue to listen to comments on the service and whether it's needed. All she asks:
"Before you judge it, get on and ride it," she said.
For more information on FIT, contact 272-3626, or visit www.seniorcenterfc.com/transportation.
Do you think City Link is needed? Worth the expense? Join the conversation at SWKTalk.com.
Found 3 comment(s)!
Go City Link
City Link has given people in our community the opportunity to have more freedom to move about our town than ever before! I know one family that, until City Link, walked everywhere they went and were subsequently limited to what businesses they could access. City Link is a necessary tool for our community and the patrons it serves. Let's see how valuable you think it is when YOUR only transportation breaks down!
Posted by: The teach on 7/15/2009
Bus System
Yes City Link is needed and yes the bus system is very important and YES the drivers and mechanics need to be paid a very high wage. This idea of squeezing the most out of workers with the least amount of pay is just plain stupid.
Posted by: Gene Sky on 7/13/2009
Absolute need
The percentage of persons living in Garden City who have no vehicle would astound most of us who do have at least one vehicle. It would be right up there with the large cities like a Chicago. That is what makes the City Link a necessity in our smaller town. That it started in the fall of 2007 right before Tyson began recruiting so heavily in the big cities was a real gift to their recruits. When some of them were complaining that our routes were only hourly instead of every 15 min. like they were used to having, I told them that we had had fixed route public transit for less than 6 mo. They decided they were indeed lucky to have what we now have. Many of them want weekend service as well-even if it is only one shift of 5 hrs. That is a dream that will have to wait. The social service agencies are very aware of the need for the City Link. Many of them have clients that are using the service regularly. I myself have very few medical transportation trips here in town because of our present level of service. So I am for keeping it going at the present level. When it is strong enough, the people I meet and serve would like to grow it some more.
Posted by: Sister Janice Thome on 7/12/2009
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