This Summer Vacation Season Brings Seven Percent More Tourists to Cities and Public Transportation than Last Year

70 million plan to “Travel Like a Local” and use public transit in U.S. cities this summer with Millenials leading the way

As the temperatures rise and schools close down, over 126 million Americans are planning to vacation in a city this year – a seven percent increase over 2012. The American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) annual “Travel Like a Local” Summer Travel Survey shows that around 56 percent (70 million) of those visiting cities plan on using public transportation for at least one activity during their stay. APTA notes that the improved economy is the reason for the increase in travel to cities. The five most popular cities for travel this summer are New York, Miami, Chicago, Orlando and San Francisco.

The survey found that a majority in all age groups will take public transportation while on their city trip, but Millenials (18-24) are most likely to use public transportation while on vacation, with 73 percent reporting yes. Major motivators for using public transportation included not having to worry about finding a parking space (73 percent), saving money on parking fees (69 percent), and not having to navigate a car within a new city (64 percent).

“City visitors can experience more of the local culture and hustle-and-bustle of city life by taking public transportation alongside local residents,” said APTA Chair Flora Castillo. “We are offering guidance to help tourists get around like the locals do. We hope that this effort will be a fun way to remind residents and tourists that public transportation systems are not just a great way to get from point A to point B, but also unique, cultural institutions that shape our urban landscapes and reflect the nation’s diverse communities.”

“With the economy on the rebound, cities are becoming a more attractive destination for the summer because they are close by and have a wide array of amenities,” said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy. “A growing number of travelers are discovering that one of a city’s greatest asset is its local public transportation system. These travelers are saving money while taking advantage of the local systems’ high-frequency routes which are designed to stop at the most popular spots and attractions a city has to offer.”

Forty-nine million city vacationers will use public transportation to sightsee and for restaurant dining and nightlife, 47 million will travel to and from their place of lodging, while 42 million will take public transportation to travel to and from the airport during their visit.

According to the survey, a growing number of individuals with incomes over $75,000 will rely on public transportation during their trip to a city and those traveling from all regions, including the South and Midwest will use public transportation during their city stay. A majority of travelers with children (62 percent) will use public transportation during their city visit.

As the number of Americans headed to a city on vacation continues to increase, APTA is issuing a series of insider tip guides for vacationers traveling to some of the top city destinations. These tips will provide insight into local public transit idiocyncracies, unspoken protocols, and tips to help vacationers to travel like a local and avoid public transit faux paux. For more details on how you can “Travel Like a Local” this summer, visit us at www.publictransportation.org.

The APTA 2013 “Travel like a Local” Summer Travel Survey was conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence and includes 1,003 interviews using a Random Digit Dial sample of both landline and cell phone numbers. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error is +/-3.2 percentage points.

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Bus: 50,702
The Tide Light Rail: 5,038
Ferry: 713

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Bus: 50,342
The Tide Light Rail: 4,700
Ferry: 641

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Hampton Roads Transit is beginning to strike deals to keep its GoPass365 ridership program running at colleges and major employers under scaled-back arrangements that will charge much more per pass.

Norfolk State University officials have agreed to buy 600 passes at $250 each for the fiscal year beginning July 1, said Ray Amoruso, HRT’s chief planning and development officer, on Thursday. The university plans to give them to students on a first-come, first-served basis and monitor the demand before buying more, Amoruso said.

The city of Norfolk is considering a similar arrangement, but one in which workers would pay half of the cost of the $250 pass if they want one; the city would cover the rest, Amoruso said.

City spokeswoman Lori Crouch said by email that specifics are still being worked out and that the City Council would have to approve any deal with HRT during its budget vote later this spring.

Old Dominion University’s executive board also is weighing a deal, as is Newport News Shipbuilding, Amoruso said.

Less progress has been made toward new agreements with Tidewater Community College and Eastern Virginia Medical School, he said. Students, staff and faculty at the two institutions are covered under deals that will expire June 30.

Representatives from EVMS and Old Dominion University told HRT’s Board of Commissioners last month that they could not afford the transit agency’s higher asking price and fretted about their students losing the perk.

The GoPass365 program allows users to ride without paying a fare on any of HRT’s services. Former CEO Philip Shucet started it in 2011 to boost ridership and fill empty seats. It began costing the agency so much in lost revenue that it prompted Shucet’s successor, William Harrell, to begin overhauling the program last year.

Under the original offer, HRT charged schools and employers lump sums based on how many students or workers they had, and every student or worker was automatically covered. Colleges were billed $6.50 per person. Rates for employers ranged from $25 to $200, depending on the total number of workers.

HRT lost an estimated $2 million in fare revenue over one year. Use of the passes peaked in January, when they accounted for about 334,000 trips, according to agency statistics. There were about 267,000 trips taken on them in March.

Under the new program, Norfolk would buy at least 600 passes in the scenario that Amoruso presented, putting its minimum share of the expense at $75,000. The city paid about $130,000 in 2012 for every employee to be in the original program – a deal that covered some 5,600 people, according to HRT records.

Revamping the GoPass program was one of the top recommendations of a critical report earlier this year on HRT’s finances. The changes were under way by the time the third-party review was done at Harrell’s request through the American Public Transportation Association.

The HRT Board of Commissioners last month ordered their internal auditor, David Taylor, to investigate the report’s findings. He returned Thursday with a spreadsheet that said all of the issues raised by the peer review were known by HRT staff and in most cases already were being addressed.

Taylor, a board appointee who is independent of the agency’s CEO and staff, also said that items in the report were worded in such a way that they sounded more serious than they actually were.

Dave Forster, 757-446-2627, dave.forster@pilotonline.com

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2012

Contact: Tom Holden, Operations Information Specialist
Office: 757-222-6183; Cell: 757-676-2616

Hampton Roads Transit wins grant for new ferry

Norfolk, VA – Hampton Roads Transit has been awarded a $1.8 million grant under the Federal Highway Administration’s Ferryboat Discretionary Grant program. The grant award requires a 20 percent local match contribution by HRT, bringing the total amount to $2.2 million. The money will be used to purchase a new Elizabeth River ferry as well as make improvements to the agency’s existing fleet and landing docks.

The ferries operate between Norfolk and Portsmouth connecting the two downtowns via the Elizabeth River. Service is also provided to the Harbor Park baseball stadium between April and September. Hampton Roads Transit currently has three ferries.

The agency also will spend close to $250,000 on improvements to its existing fleet and landing docks, including the replacement of gangways, life jacket storage boxes and fuel tanks. A portion of the funds will be used for deck preservation and resurfacing and a complete overhaul of one ferry’s engine and transmission.

Hampton Roads Transit hopes to acquire a larger ferry with a means to board and alight passengers simultaneously.

“This is great news for our agency, especially after recording historic ridership numbers during OpSail 2012,” said William Harrell, Hampton Roads Transit’s president and CEO. “We want to enhance this important service, which is quickly becoming a popular link to our bus and light rail services.”

The award comes on the heels of a $3 million grant that Hampton Roads Transit received in July from the Federal Transit Administration’s State of Good Repair and Bus Livability programs. Those funds will be used to purchase new paratransit and Traffix vans and an asset management system.

For more information about Hampton Roads Transit and its services, visit http://www.gohrt.com/.

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Outgoing HRT CEO on remaining agency officials: “These people tell the truth”

By Jon Cawley, DailyPress.com
3/22/12

HAMPTON — Outgoing Hampton Roads Transit CEO Philip Shucet attended his final meeting Thursday of the agency’s governing board. And in true Shucet style, he didn’t mince words.

Shucet began his monthly management report to the board, that is comprised of local and state officials, by referencing his being hired two years ago to right the listing transit agency. That was done in the wake of a scandal over mismanagement of the Norfolk light rail construction project that resulted in the resignation of several key agency officials and a federal probe.

“It wasn’t necessarily competency that did these people in, but the simple absence of telling the truth,” Shucet said. “And that’s unfortunate.”

During his tenure, Shucet oversaw the completion of light rail construction. Since opening late last summer, ridership has eclipsed initial estimates of 2,900 daily passengers. Shucet also spearheaded other efforts to increase agency transparency and improve bus system efficiency to stave off fare hikes.

Shucet used the meeting opportunity to point out that he considers HRT’s current administration to be a group of “rock solid people.”

“These folks tell the truth. They know what that means,” he said. “They always tell the truth, even when its not pleasant.”

Before moving on to a portion of the meeting where several special presentations were made to Shucet, board Chairwoman Pat Woodbury, a Newport News City Council member, noted he’d done “an outstanding job.”

“I’m sorry to report there is not a bonus,” Woodbury quipped.

During a presentation, HRT’s chief of operations Jim Price talked about how HRT was able to overcome its problems under Shucet’s leadership and successfully open the state’s first light rail line.

“It was wildly successful. And it really was Philip’s effort, attention to detail, leadership, his unwilling to compromise that allowed us to open,” he said. “I tell you, those principles of honesty, openness, not hiding things — he didn’t suffer victims easily. Either you led or you were a victim. If you were the latter, you didn’t hang around very long.”

At the end of the month, Shucet will return to the private sector where he runs a consulting business. His replacement, William E. Harrell, Chesapeake’s city manager, will assume the CEO position April 2.

After the meeting, Harrell said he just wrapped up presenting Chesapeake’s budget and plans to spend his first 90 days as HRT’s CEO developing an action plan. Until that effort is completed, Harrell said he is not ready to discuss potential changes he may recommend.

However, Harrell noted: “One of the things I’m committed to is spending a day a week on the Peninsula doing significant outreach with TRAC (the Transit Riders Advisory Committee) and business owners on the Peninsula to increase ridership.”

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By Debbie Messina
The Virginian-Pilot
December 14, 2011

Don’t want to pay tolls at the Downtown and Midtown tunnels starting next year? Mass transit may be an alternative.

As part of the public-private deal to build a second Midtown tube, the private consortium will provide about $2.5 million each year to Hampton Roads Transit to improve bus and ferry service across the Elizabeth River.

Service frequencies will be bolstered on two bus routes, from the Victory Crossing Transfer Center and from Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, so that buses run every 15 minutes during peak hours. Those buses now run every 30 minutes.

Additionally, operating hours will be extended to 10 p.m., from the current 7 p.m., on those bus routes, plus one other that serves Midtown Portsmouth. Sunday service will be added.

Ferry service frequencies between downtown Norfolk and downtown Portsmouth will be increased during morning rush hours.

The cash price for a transit ride is $1.50; however, discounts are available when purchasing multiday passes.

The tolls will initially be $1.59 for off-peak hours and $1.84 during peak hours for cars at the Midtown and Downtown Tunnels. Motorists also using the Martin Luther King Freeway extension will pay another 50 cents.

“Everyone is fixated on tolls, but we’re providing more than $2 million annually to HRT that’s not a cost needed to build the project,” Virginia Department of Transportation Greg Whirley said. “It’s mostly because we want to address the affordability of the tolls.”

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Free rides. HRT has signed up two more businesses for its GoPass 365 program, in which businesses and educational institutions pay an annual flat fee for its employees and students to ride all of HRT’s services for free, including light rail, bus and ferry.

Portfolio Recovery Associates, headquartered next to the Military Highway station with 1,200 employees, and Glasser & Glasser law firm downtown with 220 employees are now participating. Tidewater Community College is considering the program.

They join Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Norfolk Southern Corp. in the program.

In all, just over 34,000 people now qualify for the free rides just by showing their work or student identification. In return, HRT has collected about $368,500 in revenue.

Employers with 500 or more workers pay $75 per employee to be part of the program. Employers with less than 500 pay $125 per head. Educational institutions pay $6.50.

HRT does not have data on how many free rides have been taken.

The Tide is changing.

After one month of service, several revisions are underway to make light rail more attractive and user-friendly, including adding wireless to the trains and an online ticket-purchase option.

“It’s really about what’s the best service for our customers,” said Philip Shucet, Hampton Roads Transit president and CEO, adding that the enhancements will not push the price beyond the latest $318.5 million project cost.

“They add more value to the project overall than their costs,” he said. “They’re very prudent revisions to make.”

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Online ticket sales. Starting sometime next month, customers can purchase $3 round-trip fares online through HRT’s website as part of a three-month pilot project. E-tickets will be sent via e-mail that can be printed or downloaded to handheld phones and computers.

Shucet said HRT has not found another transit agency using e-tickets.

HRT will pay 50 cents per transaction for using the service. It will be evaluated after three months.

The Tide is changing.

After one month of service, several revisions are underway to make light rail more attractive and user-friendly, including adding wireless to the trains and an online ticket-purchase option.

“It’s really about what’s the best service for our customers,” said Philip Shucet, Hampton Roads Transit president and CEO, adding that the enhancements will not push the price beyond the latest $318.5 million project cost.

“They add more value to the project overall than their costs,” he said. “They’re very prudent revisions to make.”

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TCC bargaining with HRT to snag special rate for students

Tidewater Community College students and staff may be able to use Hampton Roads Transit’s light rail, ferry and bus services at a special rate if contract negotiations between the school and transportation provider prove a success.

TCC’s College Board unanimously approved a proposal Tuesday night to begin negotiations with HRT to provide the services, which would be available to students who attend all of TCC’s campuses, said TCC President Deborah M. DiCroce.

Currently, TCC provides a free, on-campus shuttle service that takes students to the campuses.

Under the HRT proposal, students and employees could use HRT services anywhere for a projected $6.50 a year, officials said.

Student fees fund the current shuttle service, budgeted at $400,000 annually. The potential contract with HRT could cost as little as $250,000 annually, said Phyllis F. Milloy, TCC’s vice president for finance.

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