Carroll officials suggest changing some Transit services to save money

In an effort to save money, the Carroll Transit System will be looking more closely at how it provides mass transportation in the county.

In the system’s proposed fiscal 2025 operating budget, the county is slated to provide $918,780.46 to help run the service, according to a presentation given to the Board of Carroll County Commissioners Thursday.

This number elicited some concern from District 5 Commissioner Ed Rothstein, who questioned whether altering or limiting transit service in the county could lessen the amount of money needed.

Rothstein and his board colleagues have voiced concerns about needing to cut the county’s overall budget in order to balance it for fiscal 2025, which begins July 1.

Rothstein said everything is on the table for cuts this budget season.

“There’s the match, and we have [$918,780.46] operational dollars that we are committing here to the services we currently provide,” Rothstein said. “Should those services lessen across the county, then the $900,000 should lessen.”

Stacey Graham, transportation grants manager for the county’s Department of Public Works agreed.

“The services could change to match the county dollars,” she said. “There are a lot of different things we could do with transportation. We could change hours. We could change the service we provide. We could change the days of the week. There’s a lot of different options.”

Staff from the county’s Department of Management and Budget and the Department of Public Works presented the system’s projected operating budget for fiscal 2025 to the Board of County Commissioners Thursday. The Carroll Transit System receives funding from the county as well as the Federal Transit Administration, the Maryland Transit Administration, and from fares collected from riders.

The transit system’s preliminary operating budget shows $425,946 in revenue coming from the Federal Transit Administration in fiscal 2025, the same amount the system received in the current fiscal year. The operating budget shows $321,442 coming from the Maryland Transit Administration in fiscal 2025, also the same amount the system received this year. To receive that revenue, the county government must provide $305,876 in fiscal 2025, the same as in the current fiscal year. That money is in addition to the $918,780 the county pays to keep the system running.

The Carroll Transit System provides a few different services and schedules for county residents. The TrailBlazer includes fixed routes that operate on a set schedule to connect Westminster, Taneytown and North Carroll. There are nine blue vehicles that operate on a regular schedule with specific stops, and no reservation is needed.

Demand Response (door-to-door) service operates Monday through Friday, and accounts for 78% of the rides provided by the system. Riders are transported daily throughout the county with an average trip length of 6.9 miles. Riders are primarily elderly and/or disabled and use Demand Response for medical, employment, social service and general-purpose trips.

Meanwhile, Celene Steckel, director of the county’s Department of Citizen Services, explained to commissioners the importance of mass transportation and transit to the underserved clients her agency helps. Many of those clients have mobility issues and need bus service for employment, she said.

“We talk to folks on a regular basis about transportation, and we do a lot of needs assessments, and of those needs assessments, the number one item that is a barrier to success, is transportation in our county,” she said. “I just want to put that out there so you’re aware. It’s very difficult, because we’re rural.”

Rothstein said he understood and made clear his questions do not mean curtailing or eliminating bus service for those who need it.

“I’m not saying we want to do away with it,” he said. “I’m not going there at all.”

District 1 Commissioner Joe Vigliotti said commissioners want to help residents that cannot afford other means of transportation. “It’s a question of how do we proceed,” he said.

As the primary provider of mass transportation in the county, the system’s projected operating budget for fiscal 2025, which starts July 1, is estimated at $2,934,264.97, up from 2,906,378.80 this year.

Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to allow county staff to submit the transportation plan, which includes budget projections for fiscal 2025, to the federal and state agencies that provide its grant funding.