Trolley Ad Hoc Committee

MINUTES OF THE MEETING: AD HOC TROLLEY COMMITTEE / JANUARY 29, 2019 / CITY HALL ROOM 100 In Attendance: Chairman Kyle Albright, and Board members Joe Rozier, Mike Shriner; City Council Member Craig Brown; City of Galveston-David Smith, Rick Beverlin; Lee Roane (Galveston.com). Call to order: The meeting was called to order without the presence of a quorum. Albright: Cost of service as it relates to the fare price of the trolleys. David, tell us what this is; what does it cost to run the rubber wheel trolleys October 2017 – September 2018. Smith: They ran free June July August 2017. Brought in $74,000. Expended $600,000+ payroll, overtime, contracts, garage charges, reimbursement accident claims, cost per miles and per paid driver. $5.50 per rider; $58 per hour to operate. Island Transit route Wal-Mart run highest. Dollar a ride now – matches Island Transit ridership. They feel good about raising to $2. Shriner: $100,000 year; $200,000 at $2. Brown: When rail trolleys come on line is the expenditure more? Smith: Rubber wheel new; steel wheel much more. Albright: Some would be operational part time personnel; bringing on three more. Smith: Mechanical and fuel – different, getting new engines, more economical. Brown: Diesel? Smith: Yes. Albright: Extrapolation of expenses bring the steel on board? Smith: Not yet. Albright: Number One consider raising ticket price to $2. Create a package hop-on/hop-off: provide enough revenue to implement GPS system. Extrapolate riders – how impacted with addition of three. Number of things – rubber wheel implement more service on the Seawall; what other information do you want to consider today? Recommend to City Council on price increase. Roane: Digital ticket – refresh our memories. Flaws in RP. We can do on-line ticket sales. $2 ticket – what does it cost with credit card – ends up being 10%. (Galveston.com): all depends on volume…flat monthly rate – 10 cents per ticket for the credit card fees. What is it going to cost us to maintain system, install upgrades, answer phone. Bought ticket – it doesn’t scan. Waiting to see if feasible – something left over. Roane: About 25% of maintenance fee. City has incentive to make on-line sales work. $2. City $1.40 on-line…make money hop- on/hop-off. Three day pass. Gamble. $10 might be a good place to start. We would split money not actually used. Group tickets, family of four. Scan to allow four to ride. Albright: Charge for children on buses? Smith: No. Sell to hotel – get rid of credit card fees. Albright: Methodology. (Galveston.com): Phone number text bar code; tells driver valid ticket for one or four. All driver has to deal with. Albright: Provide information on number of riders? (Galveston.com): Yes. Albright: We could get several pieces of information. Roane: No savings if people don’t use their three-day pass – just about generating sales. Beverlin: Increase ridership and fare. Albright: Concrete numbers of what our costs will be, projection for budget purposes. Beverlin: June, July, August ridership roughly 30,000. Shriner: Capacity? Beverlin: Under 50% ridership, higher at times. Fare to $2 would mute any cross ridership. Important to be higher for cash flow. Brown: $2 hour; 1/3 expenses if ridership stays the same. $90,000 covering 50% of expenditure with fare box and advertising. Education: progress to public. Roane: Blog, video, hotel TV, 2,000 hotel rooms, banner ads, Galveston.com, Galvestontrolley.com. (Galveston.com): 200,000 subscribers marketing. Brown: Where do the trolleys stand in the future of our tourist mobility system – will we need more in the future? Beverlin: To what extent the Seawall parking density program moves forward. Framework we have in place is fine – can add more rubber wheel vehicles. One more – 20 mins. We have five. Running two on Seawall. Additional operating cost each time you add one. Brown: Putting our eggs in basket for tourism. Beverlin: Free trolley ride if park car. Rozier: $250,000 per rubber tire trolley; Port should pay. Beverlin: Cruise ship activity. Out of cruise shuttle bus. A loss. Increased passenger level between Seawall Downtown & back to Port Side. Not adding routes but vehicles. Tight through there with city buses. We have the infrastructure in place. No right of way – just a hold. High profile vehicles – take capacity first on Seawall. Shriner: Ridership reduction for city. Beverlin: Projection close to mixed use approach, garages add capacity there. Ride trolley. If 10% of people parked, tossed around, if you pay to park, can you ride for free. Direct fare box would not be linked back. Advantage of people parking once. Albright: Projections – five years out? Beverlin: Don’t know if that far out. Two to three years out for private sector. (Galveston.com): Just ordered signs for shelters/stops. Increase – user friendly – just get on phone. Web page. City purchase i-pads; monthly fee. Roane: Less than $5,000 for five rubber wheel trolleys. Albright: Something you would include in GPS portion. Roane: Whole other subject. Shriner: How much the general public would take a fare increase if no GPS. Beverlin: Get hoteliers into the discussion. Stay in hotel. Ride free. Park, ride free. Some control over it. Albright: Projection of eliminating cash fare? Beverlin: Some people would not ride if no cash option. You would not totally eliminate it. Should be higher than Island Transit fixed rate. Smith: Routes. (Galveston.com): Take coordinates on map. Where cost comes in is predicting where it will be; can put dot on map – here 30 seconds ago. Shriner: Add consumer confidence. Albright: Give them something of benefit for raised fare. Brown: Giant step forward – rider confidence. (Galveston.com): Fifty percent of people will not know the fee raised. Brown: Hoteliers participate financially? They have to make up fare box. On that side, show an app. Bring together as much as possible. Beverlin: Something to show driver. Albright: Get some kind of scan document on phone. Roane: through Galveston.com – sell tickets as we do Island Pass now. Sell $2 10 cent credit card. $1.40 City. Hop-on/Hop-off. Profit to everyone way up. Hotels give paper with bar code text. Driver – pay by phone – have to figure out. Albright: Theory – who presents implementation? Work with CVB? Smith: Discuss with staff and Manager’s Office – get on GPS – get it going. Smith: Put packages together – their main thing is advertising on the steel wheel trolleys. Albright: Talked to Park Board. Smith: Seawall worst for traffic. Shriner: Unwise to predict time; location ok. Beverlin: Future – every 15 minutes. Roane: Plan for Mardi Gras? Smith: Have not ironed out yet. Albright: Anything from the committee for GPS – vote some time back. Smith: Galveston.com, City, Island Transit department – don’t have staff. Galveston.com good. Albright: SOP. Galveston.com ticket system and i-pad could talk to each other. We can do the GPS. No cost for map with a dot on website. Roane: Tiny piece of what GPS should do. Real system – driver tells system what is going on. Albright: Simple interface for them to do that – cost effective. We can do it – a learning curve. More from scratch than off the shelf system. Train drivers. Albright: I-pad on bus; pre-set. Brown: First phase GPS. How does the public know how to do that. (Galveston.com): Go to Galvestontrolley.com to see location. Albright: Hits on Galvestontrolley.com; 10,000 a month. About as many hits as riders. More information could grow it. Beverlin: Some blowback when increase goes local. Don’t understand funding source. Albright: Calculation-ridership on trolleys. Beverlin: Perfect world. Albright: Get together with City, Galveston.com. Digital ticketing? Smith: I.T. people. Albright: Steel wheels? Smith: Spring. Consultant testing trolley tracks. Back with information to Gomaco next week. Another flight up there. Albright: Lead time for digital ticketing? (Galveston.com): Four to six weeks, summer. Roane: Hesitant 4-6 weeks til City Council meeting. Smith: City Council – March, after Mardi Gras. Albright: One more time before Council meeting. March 19 at 11:00 a.m. Draft of what goes to City Council – give our support. There being no further business to come before the committee, the Chairman adjourned the meeting. Linda Strevell for David Smith – Director Fleet, Mass Transit, Special Events – City of Galveston, Texas