By Daniel Brock
dbrock@scbiznews.com
Published June 16, 2010
Even though May marked the seventh straight month of record ridership for the Charleston Regional Transit Authority, board members made it clear during their monthly meeting Wednesday that they are focused on the future, one that could soon include fare increases.

Ridership rose 9.35% year over year in May to almost 354,000, the month’s highest total on record. For the year, that number is up almost 9.5%.

Revenues, meanwhile, bumped 2.53% during the month and are up 5.69% for all of 2010.

But that may not be enough to keep CARTA from having to raise fares in the face of what board Chairman Patterson Smith called a “new reality” in the economy.

Smith directed the CARTA staff to review ridership and fare trends and to prepare a report for the agency’s quarterly meeting in July.

“It’s something we have to look at,” Smith said of potentially higher rates following the meeting. “Do I advocate it? No. But I want to put it on the table now and give people the opportunity to hear it.”

CARTA last raised fares in 2008.

In other business:

CARTA paid $4 million on its outstanding balance to service contractor Veolia Transportation. Last month a Veolia representative took the agency to task for owing his company more that $7 million, though CARTA officials strongly disputed the accuracy of that amount.

Revenue was $27,000 above budget in May, while expenses were $98,000 below their projected total because of a 64-cent drop in the price of diesel fuel.

The completion of renovations at the agency’s Leeds Avenue maintenance facility was pushed back 45 days to July 9 for a change order request. The additional work, including light fixture installation and stucco repair, will cost $37,993, bringing the project’s total price to $1,463,115.
CARTA will pay $53,125, a 20% increase, to Trident One Stop Career System to screen riders to see if they qualify for low income fares.

The first three or four of 11 new buses are set to be delivered in July. The vehicles total cost, $4.78 million, was covered by Recovery Act funds.

Rhett Reidenbach, a project manager from the engineering firm Davis & Floyd, presented a Boeing road plan study.

The board was presented with a draft of the five-year plan it commissioned. Brett Wallace, senior rail transit planner with HDR Engineering Inc., said the primary theme was for CARTA to maintain its existing level of services, while also maximizing efficiency, planning for future investments, increasing revenues and building community support.

An audit for the years ending Sept. 30, 2008, and 2009 by Biddlecomb, Game & Wise PC found “no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under government auditing standards.”