Last week the Suttons Bay (Mich.) School Board voted to use the Bay Area Transportation Authority to bus students in the upcoming school year, even though the Federal Transit Administration ordered the public transit agency to cease and desist its “flex routes” in March.
The FTA sided with the National School Transportation Association in response to its claim that BATA violated federal regulations limiting the amount of service a mass transportation agency can provide to schools. Since then, BATA has restructured its system, now called “Loop Routes,” and the changes reportedly make the Suttons Bay bus service permissible under federal law. Yet this new operation remains under the watchful eye of the nation’s school bus contractors association.
NSTA consultant Jim Seal said he filed a records request with BATA to find out exactly how the new system differs from the old, which was deemed illegal just a few months ago. Meanwhile, Suttons Bay Superintendent Mike Murray said the school board ruling to neither run its own student transportation nor hire a bus contractor was “totally a financial decision.”
“Looking at the costs of the various options we were open to … from taking on busing totally on our own, to contracting with a commercial party such as Dean Transportation Company, to just not doing transportation, that combined with our projected budget balance for next year, made our choices very limited as to what we could do,” Murray told STN. “So the board voted unanimously to not to go with Earl Transportation System or a contractor system because we couldn’t afford it.”
The cost of purchasing student passes from BATA for 2013-2014 amounts to $124,000, according to the SBPS Transportation Forum presentation made at the recent board meeting.
By filing the records request, Seal said he hopes to “smoke out” what service BATA really intends to provide in exchange for the subsidized rate of $124,00. Specifically, Seal said he seeks information on the estimated expenses of student passes plus payments to school for certain maintenance work.
“Bottom line, the $124,000 doesn’t come close to actual costs, but BATA has the luxury to use federal and state tax dollars to make up or subsidize a price below the lowest market rate,” explained Seal. “Because this is a rural community, BATA has no fixed-route infrastructure to possibly compensate for what they provided the past few years.”
Seal added that BATA cannot run its regular Loop Route service, which he called regional in nature, to fulfill a “very local” community need.
“More disturbing is how decisions are being made on BATA’s behalf when there is no disclosure of what BATA will actually provide. Even though BATA will modify the service … it’s still exclusive because there is no other need to meet from point A to B,” he continued. “Also, we know of no FTA decision approving what doesn’t exist now but what must be operated in some fashion when the school year starts to warrant $124,000 in guaranteed revenue, no matter how it’s subsidized. It must be a daily fixed route serving the school needs; otherwise, the school is paying for what already exists … a single regional route running hourly through Suttons Bay.”
STN requested more information on the Loop Routes from Superintendent Murray, and how they differ from the cancelled Flex Routes, but the call had not been returned at this report.
