County to get a new bus system

June 08, 2009

The county's Rio Metro transit corridor.

The Mid-Region Council of Government (MRCOG) is planning to use money from a transportation tax passed by voters in November to establish bus routes in the southern end of Valencia County, including Belen, Rio Communities, Jarales and Tome.

The new bus routes will be a part of MRCOG’s Rio Metro Regional Transit District, which was established five years ago and now services Sandoval, Bernalillo and Valencia counties. The Valencia County bus service will also have a route that crosses into northern Socorro County, picking up passengers in Veguita.

“We anticipate a ridership of about 12,000 people per year,” said David Rankin, a route planner with Rio Metro. “We’re busing for about 45,000 miles a year, and that works out to about 175 miles a workday. That’ll be Monday through Friday.”

Buses are expected to connect places like the University of New Mexico Valencia Campus in Tome, Valley Community Plaza in Rio Communities, Belen’s Becker Avenue, Don Jose y Dolores Cordova Cultural Center in Jarales and Veguita’s gas station. MRCOG is planning early morning, early afternoon and evening routes.

The stops in some areas will utilize park and ride, since the stops won’t be within walking distance of most homes. Up to this point, there aren’t planned stops in residential neighborhoods in Rio Communities, for example. Residents will be expected to park at Valley Community Plaza to ride, which Rankin said poses security concerns for vehicles.

He would like to find ways to offer more stops within neighborhoods, so riders can leave their cars at home, even suggesting a bus might stop anywhere on its route, even if there isn’t an designated stop.

“If it’s safe and its somewhere along the route that we travel, and we can get the bus off, we’ll pick you up,” he said.

Most of the service’s stops are in Belen, connecting apartments, grocery stores and the Belen station of the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. The buses won’t meet all 12 Rail Runner trains entering and leaving Belen, Rankin explained.

“We catch eight of those trains,” he said. “The four we don’t catch — the ridership is so low it’s not even going to be an issue for people.”

The bus service won’t enter Los Chavez and doesn’t connect with Los Lunas except via the Rail Runner. Rio Metro is negotiating to provide free transfer tickets between the buses and the train.

The City of Belen already has a busing service, MRCOG officials pointed out. They expect Belen to continue its service in some capacity, whether independently and in coordination with Rio Metro or with Rio Metro fully administering Belen’s service.

“We want to use the resources that Belen has, and we want to use the new resources that we’re going to have,” said Bruce Rizzieri, regional transit manager with Rio Metro.

Citizens, including Jan Pacifico of Tome Gallery who attended Rio Metro’s public meeting in Veguita last week, stressed the need for a transportation service that can get visitors who ride the Rail Runner from Albuquerque or Santa Fe to special events throughout the county. Rizzieri said he didn’t expect MRCOG to provide special busing during community events, but said that depends on whether or not MRCOG has the funding for it.

As for fares, children under five will ride for free. From six to 18 years old, the fare will be 50 cents. Adults will ride for a dollar, except for adults 61 or older, who ride for 50 cents.

The eighth of a percent tax that’s funding the service goes into effect on July 1. MRCOG expects to begin receiving money from the tax by October and start busing in January.

“We can’t start the service until we have the money. The money doesn’t start flowing until October,” Rizzieri said. “In the meantime, we’re going to get the routing down, stop locations, ordering vehicles, etc.”

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