The good news is StarTran ridership is up in February over last year, thanks to $0.25 fares throughout the month. Last year there were 55,832 riders during the first two weeks of February; this year there were 64,728. That's great news if increasing ridership is your goal.
But then consider the costs of the $0.25 promotion. For every rider who would have ridden the bus for $1.75 (the regular fare), it takes six new riders (at $0.25 apiece) to make up the $1.50 difference. I don't know how many of StarTran's riders pay the full $1.75 per trip. Just for fun let's say it's 10%. If we assume that without this promotion ridership would have been approximately the same as last year, and we assume 10% pay full fare, then it would take around 33,500 new riders just to break even. As it was, ridership went up around 8,900.
Looking at it another way, I'm sure StarTran assumes some of the new riders will hang around into March and beyond. Hopefully that's true. If they wouldn't have become a regular rider without the promotion, then every day they pay their fare after the promotion is a win for StarTran. I hope local media do a follow-up a couple months from now to see how many $0.25 riders hung on. (HINT HINT!)
Whatever. I'm a proponent of public transportation, but StarTran clearly isn't a popular way to get around town. Lincolnites fork over $6+ million every year to subsidize the buses, and the Feds and state kick in another $3 million. Riders' fares are but a drop in the bucket.
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Don’t forget to add in the cost of doing the promotion. Were all those ads for free?
I used to regularly attend Councilman Doug Emery’s monthly citizen meetings, & I remember him mentioning that he wanted to have a concentrated downtown Star Tran area & pull back from the more remote areas. At the time, I lived out near the interstate without a car, so of course I didn’t like the idea. But now I think it may have some merit. If we focused on a small area, we could do it right: closer intervals (i.e. every 15 min), longer hours, and Sunday service. ...I just don’t know how to do it without stranding citizens who don’t live in central Lincoln.
I ride Startran every weekday, and some weekends, and not too many people pay cash….I guess 30%. Most, like me, use pre-paid passes. So lots of the new cash riders probably represent new revenue.
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