Second Federal Stimulus Distribution Phase Benefits Metro County Connect

By Jonathan Kleyer

Michigan’s non-urban transit agencies and rural intercity bus service, will share $12.4 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants.

The funding represents Phase 2 of a two-part distribution of approximately $25 million to benefit Michigan’s rural and small city bus passengers.
In Kalamazoo, that means $59,590 of federal money to spend on operational assistance in the Metro County Connect service.

According to Kalamazoo’s Transportation Director, Bill Schomisch, this does not represent a significant amount of the Metro County Connect operational budget—he said that the service has a budget of over $2 million—but the city was still glad to get it.

“It’s small, but it’s certainly something we can use,” Schomisch commented.
Schomisch explained that the ARRA funding goes to the state, and then is distributed by what he called the normal funding formula.

The director clarified, “We get a portion of money based on population and population density.”

State Transportation Director, Kirk Steudle, said that declines in the state revenue means that the Michigan Department of Transportation, which was responsible for the distribution of federal funding for transit systems, is spreading the money out among 62 different counties.

“Our goals for projects in this second phase of federal funding, were to upgrade the overall condition of the rural transit fleet and improve the transit agencies’ effectiveness and efficiency with equipment purchases and greening of existing facilities,” Steudle said. “Rural transit systems are critical transportation lifelines in our counties and smaller cities. This funding will help our citizens commute to work, get to job-training opportunities, or visit a doctor.”

Metro County Connect began operation on November 2nd, 2010, when Metro Transit combined the Care-A-Van and Metro Van services with the goal of providing rural transit with greater efficiency. Metro County Connect provides public transit service throughout the county.

To provide the service, Metro Transit contracted the Apple Bus Company. According to Schomisch, Metro County Connect’s ridership saw an 8 percent increase in ridership in January, and the efficiency and productivity of the service has actually improved.

“We did actually get $3.1 million from ARRA previously, most of which goes to purchasing equipment,” Schomisch added.

In the first phase of the ARRA funding distribution, Metro Transit received $3.1 million that was used to purchase an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

According to information released by the department, the ITS system combines technologies such as automatic vehicle location, schedule adherence, vehicle safety sensors, automatic stop announcements, real-time bus arrival and departure information at major stops and online, back up cameras and sensors, and system monitoring that alerts of potential vehicle failures before they happen.