[BoulderCouncilHotline] RTD update

[Young, Mary]

Dear Colleagues and Community,

Below is an updated assessment from staff regarding the impact of last week’s RTD Board decision.

Thank you.

Best,

Mary Dolores Young
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.


Recent RTD Board Decision Impacts
Staff is in the process of receiving information from RTD on the financial impacts of the RTD Board’s recent (9/18/18) decision to approve the RTD staff-modified Pass Program Working Group option. While the approved option creates two new important pass programs—youth and low-income programs—there are several significant impacts to the neighborhood, business, district and college pass programs. The new youth pass program provides a 70 percent discount to youth ages 6-19 and the low-income program provides a 40 percent discount to those who are below 185 percent of the federal poverty line.

Significant impacts
The option approved by the board includes changes to how the various Eco Pass programs are priced.  Starting in 2019, Eco Pass contracts will be based on actual utilization and the full fare value of the rides taken by pass holders. Since many programs will see large increases, it was decided that cost increases in Years 1 and 2 will be capped at 20 percent, and “right-priced” by Year 3; meaning the remainder of the increase will be done in Year 3 without a cap.  For some businesses, neighborhoods and districts this will result in a significant increase in Eco Pass costs, especially in Year 3 (2021).

Neighborhood Eco (NECO) Pass Program
Staff is still awaiting data from RTD for contract estimates, but we are hearing from individual coordinators that their programs are in jeopardy. By 2021, many neighborhoods will see massive increases, and we are likely to see a portion of those neighborhoods drop out.
Forest Glen: This is the only NECO program that uses a general improvement district (GID) to pay for resident Eco Passes, and it is managed by the city. Based on RTD estimates, the Forest Glen GID costs will go up by 183 percent by 2021. To continue this program, the property tax rates will need to be increased. Staff will be working with the CAO to see what that process needs to be and will then work with the community to determine next steps.

District Master Contracts
Downtown District/CAGID: RTD’s plan to shift to utilization pricing and right pricing by Year 3 means that the downtown Eco Pass program will increase in cost from approximately $1 to $2.3 million by 2021. These passes for about 7,000 downtown employees are paid using parking revenue, so this will have a significant impact on the CAGID budget.
University Hill: The UHGID contract will see a decrease in cost.
Boulder Junction: The contract cost is decreasing; likely related to the relatively low level of transit service currently compared to the level of service envisioned by the Transit Village Area Plan.

City-wide Business Eco Pass Program:
There are over 200 businesses in Boulder, outside of our districts, that provide Eco Passes to their employees. Staff is waiting for additional information from RTD. We have heard from RTD that they are changing the Service Level Area, which impacts the price of Eco Pass programs based on the level of transit provided, for downtown Boulder to be the same as for downtown Denver. This means that the businesses outside of CAGID boundaries but near downtown will experience significant price increases.

CU Boulder College Pass:
Based on RTD’s spreadsheets, the CU student pass program will increase from approximately $4 to over $7 million per year by 2021. There is a similar percent increase for CU’s faculty and staff pass program as well.

Service cuts
It is also important to note that these pass program pricing impacts are in addition to cumulative RTD service cuts. Since the January 2016 service schedule, the Boulder area has experienced cuts to local transit service including discontinuing segments of Route 204, 206, 209, and less frequency on Route 206, JUMP and BOUND. Currently, RTD is proposing cuts of over 3,800 service hours inside Boulder County, including cuts to the SKIP.

The Boulder community continues to pay RTD more for less, and less service, which is why the city is exploring alternative transit service delivery models and will be providing an update on this study to TAB and council in October.

Chris Hagelin
Senior Transportation Planner
[https://bouldercolorado.gov/links/fetch/32017]
O: 303-441-1832
hagelinc at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:hagelinc at bouldercolorado.gov>
Transportation Division/GO Boulder
1101 Arapahoe Ave. | Boulder, CO 80302
Bouldercolorado.gov<https://www.bouldercolorado.gov/>

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