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Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Beverly Koeller has never had a car or driver’s license. She started out riding the popular streetcars in La Crosse, but when a private bus service came to town that became her main mode of transportation to work each day.

Though now 85 and retired, she still rides the bus — north to the Harry J. Olson Senior Center or south to Shopko and Bethany St. Joseph.

“If there weren’t city buses, I’d have to ride the minibus. And if there were no minibus, I’d probably have to rely on my children,” she said. “For a lot of reasons, I prefer the city bus.”

She’s among the more than 1 million passengers the Municipal Transit Utility carried in 2007.

Title: La Crosse MTU
Date: February 29th, 2008
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Critics grumble that tax dollars have to fuel municipal bus service such as the MTU year after year. The Washington, D.C.,-based CATO Institute, a public policy research foundation, argues the average public transit vehicle operates at only 20 percent capacity.

And the public transportation services do rely heavily on city, state and federal funding. It cost nearly $5 million in 2007 to operate buses in La Crosse, with the city contributing 10.2 percent, or $510,000.

But 2007 ridership was the highest the MTU has seen in two decades: 1,043,403 passengers, or an average of 18 riders per bus hour.

And mass transit translates into jobs, commerce, development and fewer vehicles on the road, MTU Manager Keith Carlson said.

A 2006 study found every $1 spent on public transit returned $3.44 back to the economy, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

MTU by the numbers

MTU ridership has climbed more than 34 percent in the last decade, from about 776,000 in 1997 to more than a million last year. About 69,000 more passengers boarded an MTU bus in 2007 than the year before.

Last year, La Crosse’s transit system cost $3.98 per passenger in tax dollars. State and federal aid — about $2.9 million in 2007 — reduced the city’s share of the cost to 40 cents a head.

Carlson said the increased ridership did help offset a 12 percent hike in fuel costs last year. The MTU paid $46,000 more for gas than in 2006; in five years, fuel costs have risen about 200 percent, from $147,400 to $427,700.

Overhead costs — fuel, wages, health insurance — also have outpaced state and federal aid, said Carlson.

It forces the city to shell out more and more each year to maintain the level of service. La Crosse paid nearly $510,000 from its $62.8 million budget in 2007, up from $428,000 the year before and $273,000 in 2005.

That rise had slowed from 1999 to 2005 after the city added regional routes to La Crescent, Minn.; Onalaska, Wis.; and French Island in the town of Campbell, Wis.

La Crescent kicked in $33,000 in 2007, Onalaska $45,000 and the town of Campbell $29,000.

La Crosse Mayor Mark Johnsrud sees potential in extending service to the surrounding suburbs. West Salem and Holmen — those are the next frontiers, he said.

The free first Monday a month program and the mounting costs of personal transportation helped feed growth as well, Johnsrud said.

Eight years ago, the MTU also introduced the U-Pass to encourage students from the three local colleges to ride the bus.

The MTU reaped $205,000 last year, transporting 74,700 riders from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 53,000 from Viterbo University and 8,500 from Western Technical College.

The MTU occasionally adjusts fares so revenue supports between 20 percent and 25 percent of expenses. Fare box, token and pass revenue in 2007 topped $1.2 million, accounting for 24 percent of the utility’s income.

A new rate hike has since kicked in and is expected to generate an additional $40,000 this year.

Adult cash fares were bumped 25 cents to $1.25, and fares for seniors and people with disabilities climbed a dime, to 60 cents a ride. Passes and token fares were spared, but wouldn’t have been so lucky if ridership hadn’t soared, Carlson said.

“We’re always trying to encourage people to ride with passes,” Carlson said. They’re apt to ride more, he explained, and it eases the boarding process.

Each semester, $9 is tacked onto every college student’s tuition bill for unlimited MTU service. That breaks down to just 58 cents per ride for those enrolled at UW-L, Viterbo and Western.

The utility also offers bulk passes to employers — such as the city, Gundersen Lutheran and Franciscan Skemp medical centers — at a discount to encourage staff to take the bus.

“We’re getting more corporate interest in mass transit, which continues to support the overall system,” said Johnsrud.

Tokens have waned in popularity, Carlson noted, and mostly are purchased by religious and service organizations.

With ridership on an upswing, Carlson said, it makes sense to plan to accommodate greater — not lesser — numbers.

The service retired six 30-foot buses in 2007 that were “past their useful life,” Carlson said. A federal transit grant paid the lion’s share of the $318,000 needed for each 33-seat, 35-foot replacement.

“People complain about sometimes seeing big, empty buses,” said Johnsrud. “But the buses have to be capable of handling the peak periods.”

The MTU opted for the larger buses because fuel economy and cost are almost the same as the smaller models, said Carlson. “We had found ourselves trying to figure out which route we could afford to put the smaller buses on,” he added. “The worst thing would be if we had to send out another (bus).”

While Carlson hesitates to name a start date for construction, Johnsrud expects the city to break ground this spring on a new transit center in downtown La Crosse that could be finished the following year.

The Great River Station has been 14 years in the making, with the wheels coming off the project several times when negotiations broke down or funding came up short.

The MTU’s main office and customer service hub is on Isle la Plume but can’t be reached by bus. The main transfer station now is outside the La Crosse Post Office building at Fifth and State streets.

A 1994 study had pinpointed a need for a enclosed transit center where riders could seek shelter while waiting for connecting routes. It suggested a county-owned lot north of State Street between Third and Fourth streets for the development. Negotiations with the county never materialized, and the MTU turned its attention to a lot at Third, King and Jay streets.

“This is huge for us,” Carlson said. “We have a lot of pedestrian safety issues at Fifth and State streets. It will make riding the bus easier, safer and more convenient.”

But the eight-terminal transit center hinges on including a 74-apartment and 10-condominium housing component, which twice has fallen through.

The latest developer, Gorman & Co., Inc. of Madison, will learn in April if the project qualifies for housing tax credits. Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates had been slated for the development until it failed to secure those crucial credits.

The need for a transit station is magnified during the winter months, when elderly and disabled riders struggle to transfer buses across busy, snow-covered streets, Carlson said.

This winter, the 85-year-old Koeller opted for the “minibus,” or paratransit, which offers door-to-door service.

“I’ve taken the minibus because of the streets and a lot of places and corners aren’t plowed out,” she said.

Improving service

Convenience and ridership go hand-in-hand, Johnsrud said.”If you increase ridership, you have more opportunity for increased revenue, which allows you to make it more convenient, which makes it attractive to new riders.”

But the geography of La Crosse — long and narrow — makes shortening transit times a challenge, Carlson said.

His daughter complains it takes an hour to get from their South Side house to Valley View Mall in Onalaska because the bus must pass through downtown La Crosse.

All but two of the fixed routes bypass the Fifth and State transfer station. Adding a straight south-to-north route at some point could provide some relief, Carlson added.

Johnsrud has his eye on improving access by allowing riders to catch the bus from any thoroughfare, rather than designated stops.

It would mean additional costs and routes, but added revenue from higher ridership numbers could help grease the wheels to make that happen, Johnsrud said.