Columbia City Council Transit Study Meeting - October 22, 2025
Columbia City Council Transit Study Meeting - October 22, 2025
The Columbia City Council convened on October 22, 2025, to review a comprehensive transit study presented by the Columbia Metropolitan Transportation Authority (COMO). The meeting focused on assessing current transit capacity, stakeholder preferences for future service expansion, staffing challenges, and a four-tier implementation plan ranging from baseline operations to a near-24/7 system. Key discussions centered on the necessity of secure funding, the recruitment of drivers amidst a national shortage, and strategic partnerships with the University of Missouri.
Consent Calendar
- Routine procedural items regarding the acceptance of the study summary and scheduling of future reports were handled implicitly as the meeting proceeded directly to detailed discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Community Feedback on Service Frequency: Stakeholders expressed a strong preference for more frequent bus service over expanded route coverage, noting that current 90-minute headways are insufficient.
- Request for Evening/Weekend Service: There was a strong community desire for expanded service during evenings and on weekends, contrasting with the current limited hours.
- Concern for Service Efficiency: The community prioritized speed over the number of stops; residents expressed a preference for fewer stops to reduce travel time rather than multiple stops that slow the route.
- Support for Regional Connectivity: Council members and constituents voiced strong interest in establishing a regional bus route connecting Columbia to Jefferson City, citing a consistent demand for such a connection over the past decade.
- Advocacy for Transit-Oriented Development: Council members emphasized the need to integrate housing, land use, and transit planning, specifically suggesting that future comprehensive plans should align with high-capacity transit corridors.
- Affordable Housing Access: A council member inquired about route planning priorities regarding proximity to affordable housing, prompting a response that microtransit may be necessary to reach dispersed residential areas effectively.
- Driver Recruitment & Retention: Council members expressed concern regarding the aging workforce (average age 47) and the burden of onboarding costs (e.g., CPAP machines), asking if the city could defray these costs to support recruitment.
- Fare Policy: Council members requested clarification on the impact of reintroducing fares, noting national trends where a 1% fare increase leads to a 3% drop in ridership.
Discussion Items
- Current Operations & Staffing: COMO officials reported having 29 full-time and 4 part-time drivers, with three more in the hiring process. The target staffing level was identified as 36 full-time drivers to maintain current service stability. The agency noted a historic low of 25 drivers and is currently at approximately 90% capacity for their desired baseline.
- Community Survey Results: A summary of outreach indicated that the community prefers frequent service (every 45-60 minutes) over route coverage expansion. The strongest preference was for evening and weekend service, as well as routes that minimize stops to maximize speed.
- Four-Tier Implementation Plan:
- Tier One (Baseline/Short-term): Focuses on operational maintenance, adding evening service (extending hours to ~10:30 PM), and increasing frequency on existing routes to 45 minutes. This requires an increase from 20,000 to ~24,000 annual revenue hours and no change to the route map.
- Tier Two (Medium-term): Proposes adding 10:30 PM to 12:00 AM service, Saturday service (hourly), and daytime frequencies of 30 minutes. This would double annual revenue hours to nearly 40,000. An alternative "Purple Route" serving the Route B/Paris Road employment corridor was discussed as a potential addition.
- Tier Three (Long-term): Adds Sunday service (60-minute headways), extends hours to 11:30 PM, and maintains 30-minute daytime frequencies. This would nearly triple service hours to ~60,000.
- Tier Four (Vision): Envisions a 24/7 system (with limited late-night hours potentially via partners), 15-minute daytime frequencies, and over 100,000 annual revenue hours. This tier includes microtransit zones in low-density areas like Rolling Hills.
- Regional Service (Columbia to Jefferson City): The agency discussed potential funding via FTA 5311F (Inner City Bus) funds for a route connecting Columbia, Ashland, and Jefferson City, with stops at the airport and state building. Staff noted this requires further state-level funding analysis and coordination with MODOT.
- Microtransit & Late Night: The report highlighted the potential for microtransit (app-based) in low-density zones and late-night service (post-midnight). Partnerships with private entities (e.g., Uber/Lyft) or universities were suggested to offset costs and liability for late-night operations.
- University Partnerships: The agency reviewed peer examples where universities fund campus routes and shared operations with the city (e.g., KU, UIUC, Indiana University). Council expressed a desire to revitalize partnerships with the University of Missouri for both campus transport and employment-related shuttles, though current negotiations are complex.
- Staffing & Recruitment Strategies: Strategies included increasing pay, offering signing bonuses, tuition assistance, performance bonuses, and improving shift scheduling. The federal requirement for CDL licenses was noted as a barrier to utilizing smaller, cheaper buses.
- Infrastructure & Bike Integration: A proposal was made to install bike lockers at transit stops (approx. $12,000 each) and to form public-private partnerships for bike-sharing near stations. Council members requested more specific details on funding and right-of-way for these amenities.
- Funding Needs: The presentation outlined significant capital costs for vehicle replacement and infrastructure ($22 million for Tier Four expansion). Operating costs were projected to rise from $5 million (current) to nearly $20 million (Tier Four). Funding sources discussed included increased local sales tax, bonds, and enhanced state/federal grant applications.
Key Outcomes
- Data Correction: Council identified a discrepancy in the revenue hour figures presented verbally versus the written report (specifically in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 slides), leading to a directive for staff to correct the numbers in the final report.
- Funding Commitment Timeline: The council acknowledged that local funding commitments must be secured by 2026 to implement Tier One services, with a targeted go-live date for Tier One in the third quarter of 2027.
- State Funding Advocacy: Council members pledged to continue lobbying the Missouri State Legislature to restore state transit funding to more sustainable levels, noting a recent cut to approximately 1% of the budget compared to peer cities.
- University Engagement: Staff agreed to re-engage the University of Missouri regarding joint system planning and potential funding for satellite employment centers, aiming to align with the university's changing parking and transit strategies.
- Regional Route Study: Staff will participate in the Missouri Department of Transportation's (MODOT) upcoming one-year Inner City Bus study to evaluate the Columbia-Jefferson City route and report back to the council upon completion.
- Implementation Plan: The council accepted the phased approach (Tier 1-4) as the strategic roadmap, conditioned on achieving a stable baseline staffing level (36 drivers) and securing consistent funding.
- Future Reporting: Staff will provide a "State of Transit" update to the council in the coming months, detailing staffing retention trends and the impact of route consolidations since the study began.
Meeting Transcript
Got it before. So then we dig into your capital infrastructure. Um, you guys have an amazing transfer station. The buses are actually in really great condition, but we looked at your shelters, um, your polls. What can we do out at the shelters to make them more attractive to bring amenities so that we protect our people when they're out waiting for the bus to come? So you have an inventory in your report of your existing um capital pieces. Then, of course, we look at ridership. This is the number one thing that all transit managers look at. Um you can see the trends on the top left. We went back to 2015 to the old study. Um, there is a dip in ridership for uh the COVID era, which every transit agency in the United States had had that craziness happening. Also, what's a little bit unique is you guys um typically have your highest ridership in late summer and fall. Um, there's a dip in the winter months, which is also not a shocker with bad weather, people just don't go out as much. Um, but for 10 years, five years, that trend has been the same. You know what I mean? So planning on that in the future, you know your biggest ridership is going to be in that fall, and making sure that we plan appropriately when that happens. Before I go into goals, any questions you guys just about this first data that were in the report. All right, we're gonna keep tracking here then. So every plan starts out with goals and objectives. Um the biggest uh message that we heard from the PTEC from the Commonweagement is we need to make sure we get out to our community, we need to listen to our members, we need to listen to our people that use our service. So we um old council, we were here interviewing you. It was a long time ago, but um, you guys are a big piece of this, you represent your neighborhoods and your groups, and so we're very grateful for the time. Um, we had many, many stakeholders. We were also out at the transfer station. We had open houses, and you know, truly it's it's wonderful to see that the community is very involved in Columbia. We work in some areas where they're not, and so it's really great that they come out. Sometimes they have a lot to say, sometimes they just want to hear what's going on, and you definitely get a mix, but the main thing is they care about their service, and that's what we care about. Uh planning priorities. So when we talk to our community to our stakeholders, some of the main questions that we wanted to share just as a summary is number one says, How what do you think is more important? A or B. A is run buses more frequently on existing routes, and B add or extend routes to new destinations. And remember, when this study was going on, we had moved from 45 minute headways to 90 headways. So it's not a surprise that there was a strong preference for people just to have more frequent bus service. We anticipated that, but it certainly is what we heard from the folk. Number two, um, we gave another comparison, serve as much of Columbia as we can, or um concentrate in high ridership areas. Um this one kind of scored in the middle. So some people do want more, but some people were okay just looking at the core of Columbia. Uh, the third call out we just wanted to talk about mentioned was add more service during the peak period. So we're busiest in the morning and the afternoon, or add more service during the off-peak time and the nights and the weekends. Now, this one a little bit different is there was a very strong preference for people to have service in the evening and on the weekends. Um that's a very common response with many transit studies, but when you guys have had a major change from 45 minutes to 90s, we didn't know where that was going to shake out when we went out to the community. Yes, ma'am. How many? How many people did you have participating in this? Ooh, I don't know. I might have to get back with you. I mean, I can easily say from council to stakeholders to people that were at the open house. I could at least say we had a hundred from different that there were many over several different times. Um, but I say a hundred at each event with feedback, but I do know we went out for surveys too, and it was well, you know, well above a hundred, but just off the top. I can get you an exact answer on another day, but sorry, I don't know what off the top of my head.
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