UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, May 2, 1996
KU on Wheels: rolling to a stop?
Lawrence may be forced to step in and clean up the mess.
Though board members have engaged in informal talks with administrators and city officials this year, neither the University nor the city has made any formal commitments to subsidize KU on Wheels.
At the root of KU on Wheels' problems is the expanding area in which students live. As students moved off campus, the bus supplier, apartment owners and students encouraged board members to expand the bus routes.
To finance these new routes, the board raised bus pass prices. But the number of bus passes sold dropped from 13,917 in 1992 to about 10,990 this year. And a bus pass that cost $18 in 1976 now costs $65 per semester.
"Because parking passes are $53 a year and a bus pass is $180 a year, people would rather buy a parking pass and try to find a parking space," he said.
Vanderslice said that he understood why students would buy a parking pass instead of a bus pass.
While fewer students were buying bus passes, the basic subsidy from Senate remained static.
Hardy said most transportation systems received a portion of their funding from the governments that operated them. He said most bus systems were subsidized about 30 to 40 percent. KU on Wheels received $400,000 from Senate this year, or 32 percent of its total $1.2 million budget.
KU students board the bus at the stop in front of Bailey Hall. It's possible that some off-campus routes could be cut if the bus contract price increases. Officials won't make any decisions about cutting routes until after a new bus contract is signed.
But Bob Grunzinger, financial adviser to the transportation board,
sake the subsby was once as high as 38 percent. The decrease in Senate's subsidy contributed to KU on Wheels' f i n a c i l a r crunch.
Ridership that was 12,500 per day in 1992 fell to 11,000 students per day this year. When ridership dropped off, Senate had to compensate for the decrease in revenues.
Now, student bus routes run as far as 8 miles away from campus. One runs far, into East
Senate spent $140,000 this year to make up KU on Wheels' losses.
The Lawrence Bus Company has worked under this arrangement for 25 years because, under Kansas statutes, KU on Wheels didn't have to take competitive bids unless another vendor inquired about the contract.
The Lawrence Bus Company has been the system's only provider of buses since KU on Wheels' inception. Ogle's father, Duane Ogle, originally owned the bus company and began providing buses for KU in 1971.
But Ogle's monopoly may soon come to an end.
But that perspective has changed.
Another national bus vendor, Laidlaid Transit, Inc., has inquired and transportation board members must now bid out the contract.
ple change and what works today may not work tomorrow."
HIGHER PRICES
Cutting bus routes is not what Ogle wants. The transportation board pays the Lawrence Bus Company by the hour, so the more routes that run, the more money the company makes.
Competition normally drives prices down, but in this case, board members say, competition may have the opposite effect.
Now board members are betting that bus routes will have to be cut. Some scenarios would leave what is now a city bus system as little more than a people mover on campus.
Some board members believe that Oleo will raise his prices.
"In the past, the University has pretty much been willing to say, 'Oh isn't that nice that the students are doing that,'" Ambler said.
Since then, the administration has begun to view transportation as part of their responsibility to students. Ambler said.
"We know we have some issues that we're going to have to address," Ambler said. "The same problems plaguing any metro bus system have come to KU. Attitudes change, peo-
The transportation board's expansion strategy didn't reach crisis level until enrollment began to drop in 1992.
Ogie will neither confirm nor deny
Haskell pays no money for the service, nor does the city of Lawrence, although it is clear that some residents use the buses to travel through the city and never ride to the KU campus at all.
Lawrence and serves Haskell Indian Nations University.
"The same problems plaguing any metro bus system have come to KU. Attitudes change, people change and what works today may not work tomorrow."
David Ambler
Vice chancellor for student affairs
confirm nor deny that he plans to raise the contract price, but he did say the new conditions may influence his bid.
Ogle said that in the past, he was able to keep the bus contract price low because he believed he would never have to compete for the contract.
Since there was no competition, Ogle said he was able to pay for improvements, such as replacing bus tires and refurbishing old buses, out of his pocket. Without competition, Ogle was assured that
through the years, he would get his money back as profits increased.
But now, Ogle said he might have to raise his contract price to pay for repairs immediately. He said he couldn't use his own money because he couldn't be assured that he would be repaid.
"I haven't expanded into other areas, but there are several opportunities waiting," Ogle said. "I came very close to bidding on the Lawrence school bus contract. I'm looking at the Johnson County transit system."
"I don't want this to seem like a threat," he said. "that's not at all what I want to do. As a business person, I have to look at things differently. I think KU on Wheels understands that."
Despite those opportunities, Ogle
If the Lawrence Bus Co. doesn't receive next year's contract, Ogle said he had several deals in the works.
would prefer to stick with KU on Wheels.
"As I expand, Chris Ogle is going to lose control of the bus system if I branch out into other cities," he said. "I've been approached by other Universities and other cities, but I feel comfortable where I'm at."
CUTTING ROUTES
Board members remain fearful that Ogle will raise his contract price and students will suffer.
The transportation board now pays the Lawrence Bus Company $28 per bus hour.
"Since our contract price is so low, it will probably have an adverse effect and our prices will increase," Vanderslice said.
And if that happens, board members say KU on Wheels may have to trim routes.
Vanderslice said if the contract price increases, serious decisions about KU on Wheels' future would have to be made.
The board decided Feb. 26 to consider cutting any route that costs more than 70 cents per rider to run. That means that the board would be examining routes such as West 6th, where the cost is $3.02 to take one student from campus to his or her home.
According to board estimates, if the bus contract price increases to $45 per bus hour, all but seven of the system's 27 bus routes would be examined for possible cuts.
If routes are cut, KU students who thought they would be on a bus route when they signed their leases for next Fall may be stranded miles from KU with no transportation.
Lori Seaberg, Atchison senior said she rode the buses everyday to class.
A busload of troubles
"A semester ago, I didn't have a car and I rode the 24th and Ridge Court bus to school." Seaberg said. "A year ago, I rode it everywhere, even downtown. If I hadn't had the bus to ride, it would have been really hard for me to get to school."
Charles Battista, resident general
At least one other bus company manager said that it sounds like the board hasn't been running the bus system effectively.
Cost to KU per passenger (paid by the KU Transportation Board)
UP FOR BID
Contract price $28 □ $30 ■ $35 ■ $40 ■ $45 ■
The bus contract price could rise as high as $45 per hour, pushing the amount it costs KU to subsidize each student's bus ride to $6.75 on some expensive routes. The fare paid by the passenger is a separate issue, to be determined at a later date.
Currently the Lawrence Bus Company charges the KU Transportation Board $28 per hour to run the KU bus routes. The board is considering eliminating routes costing more than 70 cents per passenger to operate.
Noah Musser/KANSAN
The buses that travel to and from West Lawrence typically have few riders. This is one of the routes that could be cut, leaving students who live in the area without transportation to campus.
"There's a lot of opportunity for people to get in bed with each other there." Battista said.
KU on Wheels is banking on help from the administration and the city.
But financial assistance from the city or the University administration seems unlikely. Past negotiations between the three entities have been less than fruitful.
manager for VanCom, a national bus company that provides buses for the student system at Northern Illinois University, said key parts of the KU on Wheels system weren't working.
Vanderslice said the city had made no commitments to help pay for KU on Wheels.
"I would say that the meetings with the city have been informational meetings to inform the city that there will be changes made that will affect city residents," he said.
Fred Sherman, transportation planner for the city, said Lawrence would not agree to help pay for KU on Wheels until the transportation board and the administration had reached a consensus on how to handle the bus system.
"Right now I don't know if there's a common vision." Sherman said.
The administration hasn't made any commitments to KU on Wheels either, but Amber said the University was beginning to view transportation as an issue to be dealt with.
"All of us in the central administration have been impressed with the maturity and creativity of the students in trying to deal with their
financial problems." Ambler said.
"It's a good characterization to say that nobody knows what's going to happen and nobody has come up with a solution."
But the bus crisis is rolling toward
some sort of solution. The bus contract bidding process begins today. Companies bidding on the bus contract will attend a pre-bid meeting this morning on campus.
Chris Ogle will be there, as will representatives from Laidlaw Transit, Inc.
--former transportation board adviser
The bidding process will close on May 15 or 16. Then the Kansas secretary of administration, the Kansas director of purchases and the KU on Wheels coordinator will meet to decide which company will receive the contract.
"The problem was that without some additional oversight or advice from the University, the system got into trouble."
David Hardy
and charter buses for fraternities and sororites at KU.
tract is signed.
"I know there's a bid meeting Thursday, and we will be attending the bid meeting," said Tim Dennis, manager of Laidlaw's Lawrence division. "We're very interested and we'll present a bid. We're already in Lawrence running 90 school buses. Why not work for the University and make it one happy family?"
The state requires the contract go to the lowest bidder whose service will meet KU on Wheels' needs exactly.
Diane Goddard, KU director of purchasing, said she was hoping to have a contract signed by July 1, but she said she was not sure how long the negotiating process would take.
Decisions on the routes will be made after the bus con-
For now, back at her new home in East Lawrence, Ann Michaels is wondering how she and other students will get to campus next Fall if KU bus routes are cut.
Today marks the first step in the process that will determine whether the bus will stop for students like Michaels on the first day of classes.