Almost 15 Million Trips taken in FY2013!

HART has had a banner year in FY2013 - and has met or exceeded all ridership expectations! MetroRapid North-South has caught the public's attention and many people in the County are realizing that riding the bus is a great way to get around town. That's apparent in the most recent ridership reports, which show total ridership at HART exceeded 14.6 million passengers during the fiscal year that ended September 30, a year-over-year increase of approximately three percent.  This total represents the fourth straight year of setting another record for the authority. We've hit record ridership 9 of the past 10 years.         Almost 15 million trips were taken in FY2013! Ridership highlights:   FY2013 bus ridership was up by nearly 422,000 trips or three percent, compared to last year (FY2012: 14,218,868; FY2013: 14,640,375).  Combined mode ridership exceeded 15 million for the first time and was up 2.8 percent compared to FY2012. FY2013 bus ridership marks an all-time high for HART and breaks the annual record for the fourth year in a row! FY2013 bus ridership breakdown: Weekday average ridership up 7.3 percent Saturday average ridership up 4.2 percent  Sunday average ridership up 7.7 percent "These ridership numbers bring into focus how important public transit is to residents," said HART Board Chair Fran Davin. "We will continue to make the public transportation options the best they can possibly be and to provide our riders with an experience that will make them continue to think of HART as their primary mode of transportation."   HART Highlights in FY2013:  On June 10, HART launched the highly anticipated MetroRapid North-South bus service. MetroRapid N-S is the first public transit system of its kind in the State of Florida.  60 shelters on MetroRapid N-S along with 14 bus bays, one intermodal platform and ADA upgrades at 59 locations including sidewalks, 6 pedestrian crossings in Telecom Park with rapid flashing pedestrian warnings and one regional park and ride (Hidden River).    40 shelters, 200 ADA landing pads, 10,200 linear feet of sidewalk constructed in the City of Tampa, and four bus bays were built and/or installed by HART HART launched the innovative OneBusAway Tampa app, which provides a suite of tools to deliver real-time bus tracking information to HART riders on the go. HART was selected to participate in the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) 2013 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Training and Technical Assistance program   New, smaller HARTPlus vans were added to the fleet, providing cost-savings and flexibility to operations.   A new, technologically advanced, seamless fare collection system was planned thanks to a regional collaborative partnership first initiated by HART.     For more information about HART, visit www.goHART.org

HART Ridership up 3.8% in August 2013!

Bus ridership for August 2013 was 1,268,962, or a 3.8 percent increase compared to the August 2012.    August 19 saw the greatest daily ridership throughout the month with 53,452 riders picking HART!   On average, each weekday HART is delivering more than 49,000 passenger trips on its growing network of buses, setting records in average daily ridership on HART fixed route service.  "This growth reflects the value of public transportation in the communities we serve," said HART Chief Executive Officer Philip Hale. "We are constantly looking for ways to better serve our customers and the boost in ridership is evidence that we are headed in the right direction." Fast facts:  MetroRapid saw 48,000 rides in August! MetroRapid ridership in August was 48,000 MetroRapid has increased 24.2 percent from June to August    Year-to-date (October 2012 - August 2013), bus ridership is up 3.0 percent; an increase of 391,028 trips, compared to the same period last year       Monthly bus ridership has been on the rise for the last 8 consecutive months    In addition, this year nearly 57,493 trips were taken as part of Summer Blast Pass. The purpose of the program is to familiarize youth to consider transit as alternative transportation, and it allows them to travel safely and independently throughout Hillsborough County. Some bus routes have demonstrated double-digit ridership growth over the past year,* showing that public transit use is up across all areas of Hillsborough County: Route 39 (Town 'N Country/Citrus Park to netp@rk Transfer Center via Busch Boulevard): 16.4 percent increase     Route 37 (Brandon to Netpark via Grand Regency Plaza): 13.8 percent increase Route 16 (Waters Avenue, between Northeast Tampa and Town 'N Country): 9.7 percent increase Route 9 (Downtown to University Area Transit Center via 15th street): 7.8 percent increase   Route 41 (Sligh Avenue, between West Tampa and NetPark): 7.6 percent increase (*January - August 2013)   For more information about HART, visit www.goHART.org.

MetroRapid: Boom or Bust?

With our MetroRapid North-South service only a few days old, local Fox affiliate took to the streets to gauge opinion of the new service with a "boom or bust" feature. Below are a few of the best responses.

"Boom! And it's like a lightning bolt, that fast! - Gabriel King

"It's the boom man, I think it's a good project that the HART line company got going on for the people that's trying to get somewhere faster." - Jyrale Carter

MetroRapid buses feature bus preferential technology

The best part?

They couldn't find anyone for the segment that believed MetroRapid was a bust!

If you're interested in the full article with a few more quotes from MetroRapid riders, check out the link.


MetroRapid North-South is a premier bus service from HART featuring traffic signal priority that extends green lights and shortens red lights when the bus is behind schedule, off-vehicle ticket vending machines, modern stations, and special low-floor buses. The service operates every 15 minutes (30 minutes from UATC to Hidden River Regional Park-N-Ride) Monday - Friday from 5 a.m. - 8 p.m. Try the service for FREE until June 7th, after that the service costs the same as local route service ($2.00 one-way; $4.00 all day). Click here for more information about MetroRapid.

New modern MetroRapid station

Smart Card technology and more discussed at HART Major Projects & Legislative Committee

An overview of capital improvement projects was provided during Monday's HART Board Major Projects and Legislative Committee at the HART Administrative Office in Ybor.

Construction on MetroRapid Park-n-Ride

Construction of MetroRapid North-South stations started on the north end of the corridor. This includes construction of six stations in Telecom Park, three stations in Hidden River, and Stations 42 and 44 at Magnolia Drive and Palm Drive on Fletcher Avenue. In addition, 14 Ticket Vending Machines were received by HART and are ready for installation! TVM's will be placed at large MetroRapid stations.  

HART is gearing up to begin design of a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling station by the end of this year, with construction scheduled to begin Spring 2013. In order to maximize the life of current HART vans and buses, conversion of the HART fleet will take place as older diesel-engine vehicles cycle out: CNG-powered vans and buses will be ordered to replace current diesel-powered vehicles that have reached their useful life. This conversion is scheduled to be completed within the next 6-12 years.

"Smart" fareboxes allow for various forms of payment

Lastly, HART announced that it will kick off a Farebox Replacement Working Group, and request participation by nearby transit agencies on a regional approach to modernize fareboxes and work towards a smart card system. This type of regional approach will assist with securing federal grants to fund this project, and increase user-friendliness by streamlining farebox systems.

"Fare media is connectivity," said Philip Hale, HART Chief Executive Officer, explaining that a streamlined farebox system is one of the best ways to make cross-county connections easy and seamless for customers.

The Farebox Replacement Working Group will evaluate the needs of existing and potential transit customers to first determine the most efficient type of modern farebox or smart card system that could be implemented at HART, if funding were available.  

Many HART fareboxes have been maximized beyond suggested usage, and currently only accept cash or HART farecards. Smart card technology increases customer convenience, speeds up boarding and reduces/eliminates fare collection. Various forms of "tap-and-go" smart card technology have been implemented by transit agencies throughout the country.

For more information about these HART and HART capital projects, visit www.goHART.org.

HART Board Approves FY 2013 Budget

HART broke ground on MetroRapid North-South in August!

The HART Board approved the fiscal year 2013 budget, which includes an operating budget of $61,580,511 and a capital budget of $39,512,848. This vote took place after the final budget public hearing, held at the HART Administrative Office in Ybor City on Monday.

The operating budget supports:

• 44 Regular, Express, and HARTFlex Routes
• In-Town Trolley during rush time weekday mornings and late afternoons
• Paratransit operations, or transportation for persons with disabilities
• MetroRapid North-South, new service beginning Spring 2013
• Streetcar operations
• More than 200 buses and vans
• Nearly 3,500 bus stops and shelters throughout Hillsborough County
• Customer Service, seven days a week
• More than 1.1 million trips each month!

Yukon Transfer Center is of the facilities receiving upgrades

The capital budget funds MetroRapid North-South, Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Station, and efficiency and modernization upgrades to several HART facilities.

The approved budget also includes new strategic goals and objectives. 

Goals:

• Exceed customer expectations
• Ensure safety & security
• Maximize financial condition
• Foster a thriving internal environment
• Connect the county and region
• Embrace innovative practices and systems

HART is also on its way to outperforming last year's performance results for ridership productivity, safety, quality of service and on-time performance. Most notably, HART has improved its efficiency by reducing the gross cost per revenue mile from $6.71 to $6.42.* HART buses and vans travel a combined 8.8 million revenue miles each year, and this reduced cost per mile adds up to $2.5 million in efficiency savings for fiscal year 2012, ending Sept. 30. Lower cost per mile is due to reduced fuel and administrative costs, and these efficiency savings allow HART to improve bus service for the upcoming year and absorb new service, such as MetroRapid North-South.    

Budget documents are available at www.goHART.org.

Each year during the budget development process, two budget hearings are held in September. This year, budget hearings were held Sept. 10 and Sept. 24.