With $124 million in new money, bus agency enters new world of options
By Christopher O'Donnell
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Nov 19, 2018

TAMPA - Even before he arrived at the office the morning after election night, Jeff Seward was calling in instructions to the bus agency he heads.

Voters had just approved a new transportation sales tax that will boost the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit authority's yearly operating budget from about $80 million to $200 million.

Suddenly, the agency that was cutting routes in 2017 is now eyeing dozens of projects and bus service improvements that have languished on the drawing board for years.

"You all need to take a look at how we can more buses here and get them fast," Seward, interim chief executive, told his operations team.

The changes will begin in 2019 with the expansion of the University area connector and the frequency of four major bus routes to every 15 minutes. In all, the agency hopes to add 900,000 miles of new service in 2019, which will require 30 new buses and a hiring blitz to find more than 60 new drivers. And that is just the start.

New routes will be added in the next three years, Seward said, and the agency will begin planning for a new mass transit system linking the University area, downtown Tampa and Westshore as required by the county charter change that voters approved.

"This is a new world for HART financially, " Seward said at an executive committee meeting of the agency's governing board Monday.

The new tax comes after years in which HART has struggled to provide countywide bus service. Declining ridership and rising expenses led to a cut of nearly 20 percent in bus routes during October 2017.

The current operating budget of $80 million, all from property taxes, is on a par with Fairfax, Va., and Albany, N.Y., according to Federal Transit Administration data. And it's roughly $17 million less than the transit agency in Cincinnati, Ohio, which serves a similar sized population.

But the influx of $124 million per year from the new sales tax will put Hillsborough on a par with communities like San Antonio and Las Vegas. More buses should mean more revenue from the fare box too.

The move to 15 minute intervals for HART's busiest routes is considered a necessary step to grow ridership and to attract people who have their own transportation. Studies suggest that when wait times are longer, people will no longer just turn up and wait for a bus without first consulting a schedule. The four routes now run every 30 minutes during peak times.

"Even if you just miss the bus, in 14 minutes you can get another one," Seward said.

It typically takes up to a year for delivery of the buses used by HART, at a cost of $500,000 each and powered by compressed natural gas. But HART is negotiating with supplier Gillig to reduce that to six months and if that fails, the agency may lease buses.

HART recently purchased eight used buses from the transit agency in Sarasota to replace aging buses in its fleet. Now, those buses are likely to go into service sooner.

The hiring of drivers will also likely be a challenge since the agency is still involved in collective bargaining with the driver's union.

The changes wrought by the influx of the sales tax don't end on the road.

The agency is planning a major marketing campaign to grow bus ridership and is seeking the help of financial consultants to manage its new revenue streams. It will have to shift from a single-fund accounting system and it plans to hire Clifton Larsen Allen and the Public Resources Advisory Group for advice on managing interest, borrowing and cash flow modeling.

"There is a lot more planning involved," Seward said.

The expansion of bus service planned for 2019 must still be approved by the full HART governing board next week. These are among dozens of proposed enhancements that were identified in the agency's Transit Development Plan, which was developed with input from the public.

But with new funding now available, it makes sense for HART to go back to the public and the business community to make sure these still are the projects it should develop, Seward said.

Members of the finance committee said the extra funding will mean extra scrutiny of the agency to ensure it is spending tax dollars in the best way. But there was clear excitement about the options the extra funding has created.

"It is such an incredible opportunity that voters in Hillsborough County gave us in wanting to have a high quality transit system in Hillsborough County" said board member Pat Kemp, who is also a county commissioner. "Our bus service has been terrible. This is very exciting."

Contact Christopher O'Donnell at codonnell@tampabay.com or at (813) 226-3446. Follow @codonnell_Times.