OCEAN CITY — The appropriate level of municipal bus service and just how much revenue could be lost were the subject of considerable debate this week for the Transportation Committee.
The transportation committee met on Tuesday to discuss a wide variety of issues related to the town’s mass transit system. Under normal circumstances, the town’s buses would have long since transitioned to a spring schedule while ramping up toward Memorial Day weekend and the traditional start of the summer season. However, as the COVID-19 situation drags on, there has been little demand for the municipal bus system and, consequently, no reason yet to ramp up toward summer season deployments.
Transportation Director Mark Rickards on Tuesday explained the municipal bus service through April and the first half of May is still operating on the winter schedule with two buses running, one in each direction, with typical wait times around 40 minutes.
Budget Manager Jennie Knapp said the municipal bus revenue was down in March and April, but those losses have been absorbed through the transportation enterprise fund.
However, with the arrival of May and signs of life starting to return in Ocean City, the anticipated losses in revenue from the municipal bus system will be amplified and there will likely come a time when it needs to be subsidized from the town’s general fund.
“Through April, we’ve been able to handle the losses in the transportation fund,” she said. “When we get into May and June, the losses start to become more substantial. We won’t be able to sustain the losses without going into the general fund.”
Knapp said transportation committee and ultimately the Mayor and Council will have some decisions to make in terms of deployments and schedules going forward as the coronavirus situation continues to evolve. Those decisions will affect the level of revenue lost from the bus system.
“The estimates for the remainder of fiscal year 2020 will depend on some of the decisions made,” she said. “Right now, we can contain the losses in the transportation fund. We’ve already reached the match on the state grant, so any losses from here on out are ours.”
Public Works Director Hal Adkins said the time was near to begin moving toward an adjusted spring schedule.
“Having two buses out there right now is quite unheard of, but that’s where we are,” he said. “As we head toward Memorial Day, I’m suggesting we adjust to a hybrid spring schedule.”
Operations Manager Steve Bartlett said the plan was to expand to six buses during the day and six buses at night starting around May 22. That would cut the service time from the existing 40 minutes to 20 minutes.
“I could put two more out there on Friday and Saturday, for example,” he said. “We could continue like that until July 3. That’s just an arbitrary date meant only for planning purposes.”
Mayor Rick Meehan said there was a lot of uncertainty still about the traditional senior week crowds in June although that is expected to be diminished significantly. However many recent graduates do show up, Meehan cautioned about letting the transit system become the late-night party bus as in years past.
“As far as June, we don’t know what the situation will be with the high school graduates, but I don’t think we’ll see as many,” he said. “What I don’t want is to encourage the party bus late at night. There is no Play it Safe program this year and there are no wristbands. If we start to see the buses becoming that, we can cut back service and cut back ridership.”
Councilman Dennis Dare pointed out there will be challenges with social distancing on the buses despite the town’s best efforts. He cautioned social distancing requirements could exacerbate the revenue drain.
“I’m conflicted,” he said. “I have concerns about packing people on a bus and ignoring social distancing. If we follow social distancing, we’ll probably have to double the number of buses to meet the demand and that would double the losses.”
Councilman Mark Paddack suggested keeping the municipal bus system on the same hybrid spring schedule and revisiting the issue in June when the picture becomes clearer.
“I don’t want to see it operating at a loss,” he said. “We’re not going to see a Memorial Day weekend like this ever again. I just don’t know that we’ll have a lot of people riding the bus. The restaurants will still be carryout only until stage two.”
There was also significant discussion about what to do with the Park-and-Ride in West Ocean City. Meehan said the tri-county transit service offered currently could fill the void if the town doesn’t offer it immediately.
“I’m not sure we need to start that service on Memorial Day weekend,” he said. “Shore Transit can continue to come into town to drop off employees for our businesses.”
