AGENDA #6e
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Comparison of Proposed Chapel Hill Transit Facility and School Maintenance Facility
DATE: October 27, 2003
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide the Council with information about the differences in the size and cost of the Town’s transit facility with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools’ maintenance facility.
At the September 8 Council meeting, a Council member requested that we provide information to discuss the differences in the size and cost of the Town’s future transit facility in comparison to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools’ maintenance facility. Town staff met with Mary Lin Truelove, Director of Transportation for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, to get information on the school’s bus system and facility for comparison purposes.
In 1995, the School System built a 5,089 square-foot maintenance building with a 17,199 square yard asphalt parking area at the corner of High School and Seawell School Roads to support 52 buses. It currently supports 77 buses. All School Transportation staff work from this location that includes the maintenance shop, three offices, and a conference/break room.
The table below summarizes some differences between the Chapel Hill Transit and Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Transportation Departments.
|
|
Chapel Hill Transit |
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools Transportation Department |
|
Number of Employees |
|
|
Number of Vehicles |
|
|
|
Primary hours of Operation |
5:15 a.m. to 8 p.m., with routes running until 2:45 a.m. weekdays; weekends from 7 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. on some routes. |
6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday |
|
Estimated Annual Ridership |
4,500,000 |
720,000 |
|
Bus Design & Maintenance |
|
|
|
Number of Bays |
8 |
2 |
|
Communication System |
Two-way radio system, with dispatch computer system supporting 20 demand responsive vehicles and 83 buses |
Cellular/walkie talkie communication system |
|
Fueling System |
Two underground storage tanks |
Fuel truck; no on-site storage tanks or fueling station. |
|
Washing Area |
Integrated with fueling area; reinforced concrete pad due to vehicle weight. |
No inside wash area; drivers wash buses on concrete pad with a hose. |
The existing Chapel Hill Transit maintenance facility was originally built in 1979 to serve 50 buses and was expanded in 1993 to serve 56 buses, 11 support vehicles and 5 vans. However, the existing facility is inadequate to serve the current fleet size of 83 buses, 11 vans and 17 other vehicles.
The proposed new Chapel Hill Transit facility is currently designed for 12 bays to serve 125 buses. These buses should accommodate service expansion projected through 2021, consistent with the goals of the Comprehensive Plan and the adopted Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro 2025 Regional Transportation Plan.
According to Ms. Truelove, the school bus facility, constructed in 1995, is also inadequate for their current needs. The School’s parking area was designed for 52 buses, 5 vans and 50 spaces for staff parking. The facility cannot hold all of the system’s existing vehicles; 10 drivers have to drive their buses home to park them. Their meeting room is overcrowded during staff meetings. An expansion of the parking area was planned, but was delayed due to lack of funding.
Chapel Hill Transit Bus Design and Maintenance
All regular transit buses are designed and built as heavy-duty transit vehicles requiring specialized equipment to maintain. They must run 12-15 hours per day in stop-and-go city traffic. All vehicles are air-conditioned, wheelchair lift-equipped, and have many complex electronic components such as electronic display signs. Maintenance of electronic components requires a separate clean, static-free maintenance area. The maintenance of these buses is complex, and stringent federal preventive maintenance requirements must be met. Parts are inventoried for six different transit coach models. All vehicles are fueled and probed daily for ridership counts. All maintenance work is done at the Transit facility, except major engine/transmission overhauls, which are performed by outside vendors.
The interior vehicle wash area is integrated with the fuel lane so that the vehicles can be washed and fueled by the same staff. Due to the size and weight of the coaches, all bus travel and parking areas must be constructed of reinforced concrete.
School Bus Design and Maintenance
The Thomas Built school buses are a lighter duty vehicle with simpler operating components. The vehicles use basic truck components for their engine/transmission and braking systems. Routine maintenance and repairs are done at the High School Road facility. Approximately 30% of their vehicles are equipped with some electronic components, significantly less than Chapel Hill Transit’s buses. These electronic repairs are done at a separate facility: the Orange County School Transportation’s central facility in Hillsborough, located on Holman Drive. This facility is owned by the Orange County school system and serves the Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Orange County schools. It is customary for each county in the State to have a central transportation facility to serve the schools. Major engine repairs are done at the Thomas Built bus factory. Parts are inventoried and stored in Hillsborough at the central facility.
Communications
Chapel Hill Transit’s EZ Rider and fixed route dispatchers use a two-way radio system to operate the demand responsive system of 20 vehicles and the fixed route system of 83 vehicles. This requires two separate dispatch areas to house the radio equipment and dispatch computers. The School System uses a cellular/walkie-talkie system that does not require a separate dispatch area.
Other Functions
We believe that the administrative and professional staff of Chapel Hill Transit may perform functions that are not needed by a school bus system. As a recipient of federal funds, Chapel Hill Transit must comply with many federal requirements, a condition that is not required with the School system. Two Transit positions work on assuring compliance with federal and State requirements, reporting to the funding sources, transportation planning, and financial planning. Coordination is also an issue: coordination with the local partners of Chapel Hill Transit, coordination with the Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization, Triangle Transit Authority and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. In addition, Chapel Hill Transit actively markets its services and constantly considers amending services to meet market demands.
Employee Schedules and Space Needs
The driver break room for Chapel Hill Transit was built in 1979 to accommodate approximately 50 drivers. There are now 125 drivers, and the break room is overcrowded. Many of the drivers work a split shift and need an adequate break room, because many live too far to go home between shifts. The school bus drivers are employed at schools and other places in the community between their morning and their afternoon runs.
Personnel from Corley Redfoot Zack and Parsons Brinkerhoff looked carefully at existing and future operations in developing the design criteria and the concept plan for the proposed transit facility and used industry standards for municipal transit systems in their planning. The Federal Transit Administration and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, whom we expect to fund much of the facility construction, have strongly recommended that the Town build a transit facility to adequately meet both current and future needs.