Cape County Transit Authority wants to expand bus services further

The Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority has growing pains.

It added a new bus route this year that increased ridership by 35 percent to 800 rides per week. Since Tom Mogelnicki took over as executive director in 2007, its fleet of vehicles has almost doubled, employment is up 60 percent and ridership for all services is up 76 percent.

On July 10, the transit authority will mark four years of offering scheduled bus service on a fixed route in Cape Girardeau. Now Mogelnicki is floating the idea that a one-eighth-cent sales tax would help ease the financial burdens that expansion brings and make it possible to serve more people with scheduled buses.

The $1.5 million that a countywide sales tax would raise annually would pay for expanded service, including a route linking Jackson and Cape Girardeau, as well as a new building to house the authority and new software to handle scheduling and dispatching, Mogelnicki said.

"It would help with everything in general and with the total expansion throughout the county," he said.

The money would be an investment in the economic health of Cape Girardeau County, he said.

"We take people every day to spend money or make money," he told the Cape Girardeau City Council at a recent meeting.

The first route ran hourly from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., through the south part of the city before touching major shopping and medical care locations. The buses still start rolling at 6 a.m., and the last rolls out from the transit authority headquarters at 6:30 p.m., but there are now two buses on each route, running a half-hour apart.

The authority also operates a fleet of vans providing taxi service 24 hours a day.

Knowing the customers

Charles Park drives the transit authority's south route. He knows many daily riders by name. Park has been driving for 3 1/2 years, taking the job after giving up a lawn service business because of back problems.

"You really have to know your route and know your customers," Park said. "And we know where they are going and what time they need to get there."

Barbara Gerber is a regular. She does not drive because of vision problems and said the expanded routes and more frequent buses have made it easier to use.

"I've been using it since they came out with it," Gerber said. "The best part of it is the availability, so pedestrians can be more independent."

Gerber would like to see more scheduled stops. There are 60 stops along the two routes, but some are widely spaced and the buses won't pick up or drop off passengers except at the fixed stops.

Lauren Overley has been using the bus system for about nine months, since she moved to Cape Garden Apartments at 611 S. West End Blvd.

"It's always cool, they always get you to your destination and it's always on time," she said.

The south route's stops include the Cape Girardeau County Health Department, Walmart, Sears, Westpark Mall, Cape Girardeau Central High School and Doctors' Park. It is the busiest of the two routes, carrying about two-thirds of the riders. The north route includes stops in the Red Star area, at the Osage Community Centre, the Cape Girardeau Public Library, Southeast Missouri Hospital, Food Giant, Immediate Health Care and Metro Business College.

The two routes cross at Town Plaza in front of NARS, where drivers ensure that transferring passengers make their connections by calling ahead on radios.

For Jamie Prater, the north route was the best way to get across town with her two boys, Alex and Zachary Martin, in tow.

"I usually walk where I need to go when I am by myself," she said. "But the bus system is there, it is timely and comfortable."

Subsidized budget

Since its expansion to a countywide system in 2006, the transit authority has relied on regular subsidies to keep it afloat. Cape Girardeau provides $110,000 annually, Cape Girardeau County chips in $70,000 per year, the county Senior Citizens Service Fund Board adds $100,000, Jackson gives $7,500 and the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging provides $63,000.

The annual budget is $1.8 million, including $25,000 per month for fuel and a payroll of $900,000 for its 80 full- and part-time employees.

The Senior Citzens Service Fund and the Area Agency on Aging money directly subsidize taxi service rides for targeted groups. Senior citizens make up 70 percent of the ridership, Mogelnicki said. Support from the service fund allows people 60 and older to purchase up to 18 taxi coupons per month at $4 each. The coupons are good for rides anywhere in the county. The aging agency money provides free rides for senior citizens and the disabled, with a recommended donation of $1 in Cape Girardeau and $2 in Jackson.

But neither of those funds cover all the rides needed by the targeted groups. The senior fund board money for 2009 was exhausted in November, and the aging agency money covers rides for just two weeks of every month, Mogelnicki said.

Other subsidies include federal matching funds for vehicle purchases, with the transit authority putting up 20 percent of the cost.

Mogelnicki is experimenting with new services that he hopes will catch on with riders. A new program to take workers to Procter & Gamble's plant in northeast Cape Girardeau County, modeled on a similar program that serves Gilster-Mary Lee in Perryville, is being tried at a cost of $40 per week.

The authority will never pay for itself from rider revenue, Mogelnicki said. And he knows that it is unlikely that additional support will be available from local governments.

Mogelnicki took the job in 2007 on an interim basis and said he stayed because he loves it. The authority will always rely on taxpayers to keep it going, he said.

"I went in hoping I could make this work as a business," he said. "You just can't do it."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

937 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO

Website: http://www.cgcta.com/