AATA Service to DTW on Feb. 16 Agenda
A proposal long in the works to provide public transportation service between Ann Arbor and Detroit Metropolitan Airport will appear on the agenda of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board at its Feb. 16 meeting. The AATA will contract out the service through Indian Trails (Michigan Flyer).
Details of the service include a one-way fare of $12 for advance reservation (and limited refundability) or $15 with re-fundability up to time of departure. Round trip fare would be $22 for advance reservation (and limited refundability) or $30 with refundability up to time of departure. The resolution also provides for an introductory promotional offer of $10 one-way and $20 round trip. Volume discounts also may be available for groups of up to eight people traveling together. [.pdf of resolution establishing fare structure]
AATA CEO Michael Ford has previously described the intent of the service to provide 12 daily trips each way, with a very limited number of stops, in order to achieve a trip time of around 40-45 minutes.
The board previously authorized the negotiation of the contract with Indian Trails. A resolution separate from the one setting fares establishes a two-year contract with Indian Trails at a cost of $2.56 per service mile, with the total cost for the contract not more than $700,000 per year.
Including stops, the AATA has previously described an airport route as long as 70 miles round trip. [On I-94, it's roughly 51 roundtrtip miles from downtown Ann Arbor to the entrance of Detroit Metro.] At the lower end of the regular fare offered on a 70-mile round trip, the service would need to average around eight passengers per bus to cover the cost of the Indian Trails contract on fares alone. [(70*2.56)/22 = 8.14] [.pdf of board information packet]
The Feb. 16 AATA board meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the fourth-floor boardroom of the downtown Ann Arbor District Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave.
Thanks for Totter Toons, Dave!
You know that abbreviation “LOL”? I could use “COL” (for Chuckle Out Loud) for this Totter Toon. Thx, Dave!
Coal is good. It can help get us off foreign oil. Why is Obama and, of course, city council, bashing our most abundant fossil fuel? Sure, let’s send some more cash to Venezuela and the mideast. Morons.
That would be because of the devastation to the environment in the mining and the burning (use) of coal. It isn’t an either or pick – we can (and are) creating alternatives to both coal and oil. In the meantime, decreasing the use of both as much as possible seems the only ethical and practical choice. There is no future with coal. But I agree – not with oil either.
If you were just making a joke, sorry, I missed it. I really am not sure if you are serious, Jake.
Ethical? Perhaps. Practical? You’re joking, right? O himself has said he wants to eliminate oil imports from mideast by 2019, a worthy but not practical goal. How can he did this w/o coal? Impossible unless we start 22-hour-a-day blackouts. Extreme liberals: No future w/coal. No future with nuclear. No future w/oil and gas. That leaves “alternative energy,” which makes up 6.8% of all usage currently and even under the most extreme liberal estimates (not practical estimates) might be 30% by 2020. Yup, blackouts it is. That’s your “practical” alternative.
Thanks, Jake, for pointing out the obvious — as long as we consume as we have been, the ‘liberal’ alternatives don’t measure up. Perhaps 22 hour blackouts aren’t such a far fetched idea. (I’m only partially joking here.) How much coal and oil does it take to ride our bikes. How much savings in energy would be have if a significant majority took a bus to work?
A serious question is whether we can more gently lower our standard of living?