Homepage Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Mountain Line | Fixed Route Service in Flagstaff

Mountain Line Marks 18th Straight Year of Ridership Growth

FLAGSTAFF, AZ (August 7, 2018) – Mountain Line is bucking the nationwide trend of declining bus ridership, registering another year of record ridership and surpassing Fiscal Year 2017 ridership by more than 17 percent.

The official ridership tally for July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018 was 2,440,338. When Mountain Line started in 2001, the annual ridership was just shy of 200,000, and the agency hit the 1 million rider mark in 2009 and the 2 million rider mark in 2017. While Mountain Line’s ridership has been on the rise, many bus systems across the country have been experiencing multi-year ridership declines. According to the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) ridership report, bus ridership is down 4.27 percent through the end of 2017.

One factor for the ridership increase was the addition of new buses to better serve busy routes. After experiencing overcrowding and crush loads on Route 10 (free for NAU students and connects the Woodlands Village area and downtown Flagstaff via the NAU campus), Mountain Line applied for and received grant funding to purchase five 60-foot, hybrid-electric articulated buses, to make a total of six in the entire fleet. The articulated buses allow Mountain Line to move twice as many riders (as compared to a standard bus) with only one driver, creating operational efficiencies and increased capacity. With the addition of the articulated buses, Route 10 ridership increased 48 percent over the previous year.

“Mountain Line is committed to finding innovative solutions to issues and seeking out grant funding to leverage the local tax dollars,” said Flagstaff City Councilmember and NAIPTA Board Chair Scott Overton.

In addition to serving more people than ever before Mountain Line is also experiencing an uptick in rider satisfaction levels. The biennial Rider Satisfaction Survey, last conducted in April 2018, revealed an overall satisfaction level of 4.5, on a five-point scale. Bus driver courtesy and safety and security both onboard the bus and at stops were two areas that grew significantly since the last survey.

NAIPTA is the transit agency in northern Arizona operating the Mountain Line, Mountain Lift and Mountain Link systems in Flagstaff. NAIPTA also coordinates services with Campus Shuttle Service at Northern Arizona University.

Mountain Line Receives National Recognition for Marketing Program

FLAGSTAFF, AZ (October 19, 2017) – The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) presented Mountain Line with an AdWheel Grand Award at its annual meeting in Atlanta, GA last week, recognizing the agency’s marketing and communications efforts around the Proposition 411 Transit Tax Renewal educational campaign.

The awards recognize APTA member public transportation systems and business members for their outstanding marketing and communications campaigns. Nearly 350 entries were evaluated by more than 100 industry experts and awards were presented in three categories: efforts to increase ridership or sales, efforts to highlight transit needs and funding, and educational efforts. Honors were awarded in four groups, based on system size. Mountain Line’s winning entry was in the efforts to highlight transit needs and funding category for systems with 4 million or less annual riders.

The Proposition 411 educational campaign was aimed at keeping Mountain Line top of mind on a crowded November 2016 ballot, reinforcing the message that it was a continuation of an existing tax, and reminding voters that Mountain Line delivered on all promises made in the 2008 election. Proposition 411 passed with a 71 percent approval rating, allowing Mountain Line to keep serving the Flagstaff community through 2030.

“We are fortunate to maintain an extremely positive relationship with the Flagstaff community, but the nature of the 2016 election cycle meant that we couldn’t make any assumptions,” said NAIPTA CEO & General Manager Jeff Meilbeck. “Conducting an effective and informative public education campaign was paramount, and I am thrilled that our efforts have been recognized by our national transit association.”