Trolley Ad Hoc Committee

MINUTES OF THE MEETING: GALVESTON AD HOC TROLLEY COMMITTEE/SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 CITY HALL 11:00 A.M. In Attendance: Chairman Kyle Albright, Co-Chairman Trey Click, Kelly de Schaun, Joe Rozier, Mike Shriner; Galveston City Council Member Craig Brown; Goodman Corporation John Carrara; City of Galveston Rick Beverlin and David Smith; Galveston.com Lee Roane, Scott Moon, Kent Muller, Larry Wood. Call to Order. Chairman Kyle Albright called the meeting to order at 11:02 a.m. and declared a quorum present. There were no conflicts of interest and no requests to address the committee. Minutes. Kelly de Schaun moved, seconded by Trey Click, for approval of the April 23 minutes; motion carried. Vehicle Delivery. David Smith: Testing phase begins October. John Carrara: Safety oversight details, manuals, process for certification and operation. Kyle Albright: Will TXDOT wait til all three are here to start process; on site? (Yes). Trey Click: Different from bus? Carrara: Mostly electronic part – much different than driving bus. Rick Beverlin: Trying to hire two more drivers. Smith: Updated original plan to send here, and we would install…now, at Gomaco and will install (air). More turnkey. If cannot be shipped, will be within trolleys. Pushing for October for testing. Albright: Trolley – opening of The Polar Express, November 15. Beverlin: Brian talked to me about it. Click: Great way to pre-introduce what is happening. Smith: Access to outside of trolley. Beverlin: Safety standards changed eight times since start of trolleys – threshold higher and higher. Everything between City, Goodman, in-house team. Incorporate into procedures as well. Craig Brown: Trolley delivery in November? Smith – end October. Beverlin: May 2020 even though lead time TXDOT seems optimistic. Albright: On tracks, running without people on them. Beverlin: Yes, sporadic operations. Albright: Each one will have to be tested. Beverlin: 45 to 60 days per vehicle. More than oversight groups used to dealing with. Think Metro – has to do a lot of the same things. Fares. Beverlin: City Council on variety of fare issues – public meetings. Losing ridership. Boost ridership – fixed rate over 65, plus vets. Those already qualified on ride can ride for free. $5 annual i.d. card. Exceeded 40 in last week signed up. Joe Rozier: Will it play into trolleys? Beverlin: Ridership down – integrated to trolleys and ADA system. First piece – some migration back over. People like ‘free’ in Galveston. Will watch over next several months. David and I met with Bryan Kuntz – discounted fares. City Council – to $2. Not until steel wheels here and operating. Work out discount with hoteliers; want to be in sync. Want as many tourists as possible on it. At floor on federal grant fixed route. State grant dependent on fixed route. Time with steel wheels working with Park Board/City Council on where sweet spot should be. Left low hanging fruit for positive migration back – fixed route. In end, fixed route, non-traditional riders. Gas going up, transit goes up. Personal income concern. What could occur – all pieces in place – will go up. Beverlin: Printing. Scott Moon: waiting on what came back from City Council. Beverlin: May need a third party. Piggy back on someone else’s app. Will look at smart cash boxes, digital tech at one time. We get paper clips and tokens. Migration to trolleys from locals – half dollar bills. Convenience store selling rolls of fake tokens. Wish could close doors. Albright: In talking to other agencies, see elimination of cash. Beverlin: Talking about high risk population – not good credit. Albright: Incorporating Pay by Phone. Beverlin: Pay by Phone ultimate plan for Seawall, pay to park and free trip on trolley. Once in place, tourist pay to park and use trolley…congestion: bikes, golf carts. Albright: Cash on Seawall. Vendor store. Beverlin: Is our next step going to get us…first money we spend proprietary, endless pit; Ft. Bend working out kinks. Applicable here. Pay by Phone? Albright: Take the fare from $1 to $2 by time steel wheels in place. Beverlin: Don’t know if $2 fare in place. Smith: Can do it; token transit, software. Once numbers are hardened up, we can negotiate with them. Beverlin: Most are much larger than us. Metro couple of million at this point. Albright: Token transit. Beverlin: Fees 20 cents per/2 years ago. Albright: Revisit with them on another vendor. Ticketing process opens up the door to advertising, etc. Beverlin: Especially for visitors – technology. Rider survey: 70%...67% smart phone; another 70% use for ticketing. Rozier: Did City Council talk about increase? Brown: Back to us in spring. deSchaun: Pay by Phone – ours could be unique to Galveston. Beverlin: Hold off. Token transit, re-tooling fleet. We would have helped move something along. deSchaun: App one not well known. Beverlin: Metro app in Houston – could use here; potential users in region. deSchaun: add modules – not friendly. People coming from different places. Beverlin: Commuters would be a target. deSchaun: Build on to it. Platform. Investment to get us to where we want to be. Albright: Can we take Token transit and add module for parking? Technology changed in two years. Click: Accomplish one thing that does multiples – what we went through with Pay by Phone. Calmed down; people used it. Another way concerns me. Three apps. Beverlin: Some other option – has to be. Next City Council agenda. Block three parking spaces – want to get to 50 a week; have an app flexible bus downtown terminal. Buses coming and going with connections to Dallas, Houston, Baton Rouge. German company. Albright: Multiple apps not that big a deal to me. Click: Pushback. I don’t want another app. Galveston Transit app worries me as well. Beverlin: Something like a mobile site. Migrate away from Pay by Phone. Pre-load credit card; save. Hit a button. Building a page with mobile format different. Brown: Goal—answer to questions on parking/transportation by May. Can we report back to this committee, past budget. Also need IT involved on this. Shriner: TranStar/TXDOT – send a bill; why would they not do a piece for parking? Beverlin: Tourist transit mobility plan – could do that. deSchaun: Texas tollways pass – charge through gate. Before December meeting. Come over – get on calendar. Go to City Council – support from the industry. Brown: Back on our December agenda? Albright: Direction on what is available out there. Beverlin: Re-engaging on that – Token transit/top 2 – 3. Galveston.com. Revenue report. Moon: Ten months of revenue $66,000 - $125,000 through end of August. We didn’t have a full product. Shelter 14th – 61st: most sold. Further locations – not as easy a sell. Brown: Over calendar year. Moon: Only one more month. Albright: Method of advertising on outside placards. Moon: Assume interior as on rubber wheels. All customize specs so we can sell as well. Albright: Monitors? TV? Carrara: We will have them. Smith: Same set up on rubber wheel trolleys – two screens. Moon: Can do routes – more flexible for sales. Albright: Compliments on map. Looked good. Restricted on two main plaques? Smith: Yes, restricted. Larger broken into smaller. Brown: $128,000 gross advertising revenue, forecast? Moon: $600,000 year. Think $400,000 would be great. deSchaun: Think $120,000 looks good; Hospitality ER adv.; sending big money. Working hard for it. Smith: 100% everything sold. deSchaun: Could amend now that we have done it for a while. Albright: Downtown and UTMB district additional advertising. Moon: Not that many in position. Wayfare signs – no luck yet. Kyle: Naming rights for station. Scott: Until strong ridership, don’t see value. Lee Roane: Casa del Mar or Coca Cola stop – name on Google for stop … til it becomes-then you will have value. Google transit. Albright: GPS on rubber wheels and buses. Google transit interface between GPS locators. Smith: We need third party software. Beverlin: Piece not there til exact times solidified. Smith: Island Transit going through change. Albright: Census for next year. Will some of this be eased. Beverlin: No. Additional interim legislation – money 2022 – what we have already done to move back to small urban category. Hotel packages. Smith: Met with Park Board; need to harden up numbers. Beverlin: Re-ignite discussion. deSchaun: 5,200; 2,500 short-term. Sit down together – how package will look. Gather troops. Beverlin: David and I can start major excel sheet advantage/disadvantage on parts. Showing a matrix – why something might be delayed. Click: How is it delivered? Until we know how a package deal from hotel is delivered…key part of all this. Beverlin: Each is a project unto itself. deSchaun: Commit before December meeting TDAC. Keep flow of information coming. Beverlin: Urban legend— build up They Are Coming. Test runs. Sighting. Roll-out leading up. Click: Will help to see and feel. David, 25th Street construction? Smith: On this project in sections. Black topping up to the tracks. Won’t be able to run during construction. Click: Year? Smith: 18 months. Beverlin: Keep on downtown loop; rubber wheels for construction. Carrara: Make sure clear on weekends; construction not going on. Median Silk Stocking Historic District. Shriner: Events downtown conflict retailers. These can stop trolleys. Trolley tracks as perimeters of events – move events inside loop. Beverlin: Would have to move off Strand. Smith: Some discussion – they love The Strand. Some events promoters hire the trolleys. Click: Public Safety issue. Transit in middle of event. Shriner: Put trolley track in middle of event. Beverlin: Rubber wheel by default. Shriner: Festival on Thursday afternoon – stop the trolley. Rozier: UTMB at edge of event. Shriner: 20th – 23rd difficult for pedestrians. Albright: Incorporate rubber wheel trolleys between UTMB and festival grounds. Not dependent on moving trolley on tracks. East side Strand area up and coming. Revisit again. How to incorporate rubber wheel. Rozier: Pier 21 loop back into service. Albright: Contingent on manual manipulation of switch. Carrara: Loop one block to Pier 21 when steel wheels. Smith: Seawall to 25th – steel wheels. Motorcycles – keep from driving drunk. deSchaun: Conversation with Port? Smith: No discussion. Beverlin: Not specific. deSchaun: Thinking about the system. Some integration – getting people across Harborside. Someone from Wharves Board to sit with us; dialogue. Brown: Suggest engineer, Jeff Thomas. Meeting Date. Albright: December 10? Dickens is 6-7-8. Other Comments. Rozier: Took pictures of locations. Some small benches removed. Beverlin: Custom House needed to have things done. Smith: Signage taken down and benches as well. Will go back through and evaluate. Carrara: Rubber tires one by one restore. Albright: Issue with opening on curbside rather than median side. Beverlin: Where we pulled signs. Carrara: Go back to original? Beverlin: Did not want people going back to wrong side. Adjournment: Trey Click moved; Craig Brown seconded. All in favor, and motion carried for adjournment. Respectfully submitted, Linda Strevell Recording for David Smith, Executive Director