2000-2010: Transit Growth & Investment in Greater Grand Rapids
A Transit Master Plan or TMP is a comprehensive, 20-year plan that will guide the future development of The Rapid transit system. The following is a section pulled from the approved TMP. Download the full Transit Master Plan from The Rapid's TMP website.
The Local Investment in Transit
The initial millage rate approved in 2000 was 0.75 mills. In November 2003, facing a decrease in state operating assistance and wanting to institute additional service improvements, The Rapid requested a 0.20 mill increase, bringing the total millage commitment up to 0.95. All six cities approved the request.
Following a 2005 Comprehensive Operational Analysis (COA) designed to optimize The Rapid’s existing services and implement additional service improvements, a third millage increase was requested in 2007 that would raise the millage rate to 1.12 to support the proposed improvements, and it was again approved.
Most recently, The Rapid came back in May 2009 requesting additional local funding support to operate the Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit project along Division Avenue. The request for an additional 0.12 mills, which would not begin to be collected until 2012, was narrowly defeated 52% to 48%. The existing millage rate, 1.12, will expire in 2013 with a final collection of millage in 2012.
2000 to 2010: Transit Growth in Greater Grand Rapids
As The Rapid began to implement service improvements ridership began to grow in response to the implementation of new buses and service improvement. Much of the service enhancements were related to evening and weekend services, typically the least productive periods for transit service.
While the amount of service operated (annual revenue vehicle hours) only grew by 56% between 2000 and 2009, annual boardings on local bus service more that doubled, rising from 4.2 million unlinked passenger trips in 2000 to 9.3 million in 2009. The dramatic growth in ridership was not The Rapid’s only accomplishment over the decade. The Rapid undertook a major capital improvement program, expanding the vehicle fleet to 119 buses and 66 paratransit vehicles; constructing Rapid Central Station, the first LEEDâcertified transit facility in the U.S.; and initiating upgrades to the Wealthy Operations Center.
In recognition of the agency’s accomplishments, The Rapid was named APTA’s 2004 Outstanding Public Transportation System in the U.S. for systems its size (between 4 and 30 million annual trips).
See the Full Master Transit Plan
