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Valley Metro, officially named the Regional Public Transportation Authority (RPTA), is the system responsible for public transit in the area of Phoenix and Maricopa County, Arizona.
About Valley Metro Contrary to popular belief, Valley Metro does not actually operate the majority of transit services in the region; it is considered a membership organization, and most services are separately funded and operated by the several individual cities and suburbs in the greater Phoenix region. These cities have agreed to participate in Valley Metro as a unifying brand name to streamline service and reduce confusion among riders. Each city (through its mayor or board of supervisors) appoints a representative to the RPTA board of directors, and a chairman, vice chair, and treasurer are voted on amongst the board members for a one-year term. The RPTA operates a customer service, marketing and long-range transit planning operation (from headquarters in downtown Phoenix) which is shared among all Valley Metro member cities. A few routes, which operate within several member cities, have their funding and operations shared between those cities. Some RPTA funding is used in certain cases to augment service provided by the member cities (this is expected to increase over the next several years due to the 2004 voter approval of an extension to the original 1985 sales tax for transit funding (see below)). The City of Phoenix alone operates 73 percent of all Valley Metro routes (several of which also serve suburban cities). * History The RPTA was formed in 1985 as the result of Phoenix-area voters approving a one-half percent sales tax increase for long-overdue expansion of the local freeway system, and for expansion of mass transit. The RPTA was then chartered under the laws of the State of Arizona. Valley Metro, as an integrated regional transit service, did not begin operations under its own brand identity until 1993, when the RPTA board of directors chose that name, the logo and color scheme as described below. Originally, buses were painted in a green and purple color scheme (and the majority still are), with a green stripe and a large purple "V" on the passenger's side, and the reverse on the driver's side. In 2006, a simplified new color scheme was introduced. This scheme is similar to the original scheme except that the "V" has been removed, there is only a green stripe around the bus, the Valley Metro logo is displayed on the front, rear, and rear sides of the bus, and the sides are lettered "Valley" in purple and "Metro" in white. Most buses are still in the old scheme, but new ones have been delivered with the new scheme and there are a small number of buses that have been repainted with the new scheme. In the early years of Valley Metro and throughout the 1990s, the Phoenix metropolitan area was the largest metro area in the United States to have transit service operating Monday through Saturday, with no Sunday Service or Saturday night service (after 8 p.m.) at all. Even on weekdays, some bus service ended as early as 7 or 8 p.m. It was a source of national embarrasment to have a huge regional population in the service area with such a limited level of bus service; this provided huge hardship for a large portion of the Phoenix labor force (some of who had to walk or bicycle large distances to and from work when bus service didn't operate) and may have been a deterrent to some who wanted to relocate to the Phoenix area. That began to change in 2001 when Valley Metro expanded to Sunday service in Phoenix, Glendale and Scottsdale, with Tempe having Sunday service since 1999 (this resulted in large part from the approval of the Transit 2000 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), which involved a new 0.4 per cent sales tax in the city of Phoenix, with the other cities approving similar measures around the same time). The rest of the service area, including Mesa, still has no Sunday service as of November 2006. In 2002, the cities of Tempe and Scottsdale merged BOLT (Better Options for Local Transit) and Scottsdale Connection into the Valley Metro system in order to unify the Valley Metro brand and to reduce confusion (especially along the Red Line, which was operated by both Phoenix and Tempe and used Valley Metro and BOLT branded vehicles). All of the BOLT buses were repainted into standard Valley Metro colors (they still have a different interior than other Valley Metro buses) and the Scottsdale Connection buses were replaced. However, before the merger the systems were featured in the Valley Metro Bus Book and had the same fare structure as the rest of the system. They were basically a different brand. Bus service Valley Metro operates bus routes around the Phoenix area through private companies in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, Glendale, and other parts of Maricopa County. These include fixed routes on city streets, suburban Express buses, RAPID buses, and circulators in downtown parts of Phoenix, Glendale, and Tempe. Many bus routes, especially those mainly serving the city of Phoenix, are numbered roughly according to the streets on which they travel (for example, Route 35 is a north-south route which runs along 35th Avenue; Route 0 runs north-south along Central Avenue, which is the dividing street or "zero point" separating East and West Phoenix on the city's street grid). Newer plans call for more buses on arterial streets, especially those currently underserved by buses, extension of existing bus routes into fast-growing suburban neighborhoods, and expanded Express/RAPID service onto more freeways. The Bus Book (mentioned above) is updated twice yearly and contains maps and schedules for all routes. Copies are available at no charge at Valley Metro ticket offices, many public libraries, community colleges and other civic facilities around the metro area, and on the buses themselves. Because the Bus Book is difficult to carry around easily (the size is similar to a medium-sized catalog, averaging about 250 pages), patrons often use the Bus Book to quickly reference the time when their next bus will arrive, and simply leave the book sitting at their bus stop when finished, for the use of other riders. Some companies offering Valley Metro bus service Bus fleet Since the mid 1990's, the cities of Phoenix and Tempe have purchased coaches from North American Bus Industries. Valley Metro was the original launch customer for the NABI 45C-LFW Compobus for its RAPID BRT lines; other models in wide use include the nationally popular 40-LFW. There are older coaches manufactured by RTS and New Flyer that are still in use (especially on the Laidlaw-operated routes) and date from the late 1980's and early 1990's; these are slowly being phased out. In 2006, RPTA took delivery of new coaches from New Flyer, these vehicles are being used on the routes it directly operates in Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa and the surrounding areas. The average age of the fleet is about 6 years. Rideshare There are also vanpool and carpool services coordinated by Valley Metro, often through employer group programs. Capitol Rideshare is among the largest, operating for employees of Arizona state government. Many other employers also have similar "trip reduction" programs to convince their workers to use transit alternatives. Despite the lesser media attention it receives, rideshare is one of Valley Metro's most widely used services and may be expanded in the future. Light rail The planning of light rail in the Phoenix area has been an objective since Valley Metro's formation. In 1989, area voters were asked to have their say on expanded bus services and the implementation of elevated rail (a plan known as "Val-Trans") in a referendum. The routing of three currently operating (and heavily traveled) bus routes would have been the elevated rail lines' paths, and referred to by these color designations: Funding would have been from a sales tax plan with a set expiration and reapproval date in 30 years. The Val-Trans proposal was soundly defeated at the polls. Similar referenda were voted down in 1993 and 1997, although Tempe voters passed a half-percent sales tax dedicated for transit (which partly allowed officials to study light rail) in 1996. In 2000, the Transit 2000 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), which involved a 0.4 per cent sales tax, was approved by voters in Phoenix. This would involve improvements of the local bus service and the formation of bus rapid transit and light rail, among other things. Valley Metro Rail has a goal of a one-third farebox ratio according to *, and the RTP anticipates this to rise to 45% by 2025. The plan implemented studies for further rail service, though for some time in the future. It also used the route placing and color designations from the 1989 plan. The first line of the light rail system, to be named METRO following the results of a 2003 contest, will be a 20-mile (32-km) line serving Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa. The line will cost $1.4 billion USD, and will open in 2008. Construction began in March 2005. The line will mainly operate on city streets in a "center reservation," similar to the Main Street line of the METRORail system in Houston and the surface sections of the Green Line in Boston. The line will start at the area of 19th Avenue and Montebello (just south of Bethany Home Road), then follow 19th Avenue, Camelback Road, Central Avenue, the 1st Avenue/Central Avenue couplet, the Washington/Jefferson Street couplet, Washington Street, a private right-of-way around Arizona State University, Apache Boulevard, and Main Street to an intersection just east of Dobson Road. 27 stops are to be built along the route (see map). Future extensions and improvements Greater Phoenix covers many suburban areas previously not viewed as appropriate for rail. This has changed as the cities grow and increase in density. A large, area-wide mixed transportation plan was approved in the 2004 elections. More light rail extensions are to be built. Among them are extensions: The plan also identifies several "eligible high capacity corridors" (Figure 8-4) for added service within a few decades, commiting to future study of light rail as an option for these routes. They are: Increasing city development may spur more frequent service, further suburban extensions, and one day, regional rail services to other Arizona cities. Elevated or subway lines may also be installed. Voters have, however, opposed similar plans in the past. | ||||||||
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