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TARTA told to halt charters
U.S. order pleases firms that claimed unfair competition
By DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER


TARTA has dropped its bus charter operations for weddings and special events after federal regulators ordered the agency to stop offering services that competed with private charter companies.

The TARTA charters, which generate more than $300,000 a year for the agency, came under fire in July, when a local company charged that they violated federal regulations that prohibit publicly funded agencies from running private charters.

In August, the Federal Transit Administration ordered the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority to cut the charters or it could jeopardize its federal subsidies. After appealing the order for several months, TARTA recently agreed to accept the ruling.

The decision pleased local charter companies.

"They’ve been breaking the law for several years," agreed Steve Pixley, owner of Tecumseh Trolley & Limousine Service in Tecumseh, Mich. "I’m sick and tired of government entities competing with private enterprise."

TARTA will continue to offer school runs, which it provides for tens of thousands of Toledo public and private school children. The initial complaint had asked the FTA to look into the school runs as well.

TARTA has provided charters for years and has run special buses for golf tournaments, festivals, and the Parade of Homes. It also has special holiday shuttles. Under federal law, a public transit agency can offer the trips if it follows specific rules on how to search first for local companies to handle the runs.

But a local company, September Winds Motor Coach, Inc., challenged the agency, saying it hadn’t complied with those rules. Steve Tobis, the director of September Winds, said he and other bus charter firms have complained for years about unfair competition from the public transit agency.

"The Federal Transit Administration is now paying attention," he said.

Donald Gismondi, the FTA’s deputy regional director in Chicago, declined to comment on the situation, saying his agency’s investigation is continuing.

In the last five years, charters have generated $1.9 million for TARTA, according to agency records. Since complying with the order, TARTA has canceled seven bookings and suspended new bookings.

James Gee, the transit authority’s general manager, said TARTA never willingly violated federal rules. "We, in good faith, do our best to comply with federal regulations," he said. "Our process didn’t change. It was their interpretation of a rule that had changed."

Mr. Gee said TARTA’s holiday shopping shuttles and school runs are legal. They are open to the public, operate on published timetables, and charge fares, he said. For the trolley charters, he said, TARTA had consent agreements from all private firms that responded to the agency’s legal ads.

All other TARTA charters, including shuttle buses for events like the Crosby Arts Festival and the Toledo Home Builders’ Association Parade of Homes, were booked in conjunction with Aero Charters, Inc., a Reynolds Road business that Mr. Gee said has since left the market.

Six firms, including September Winds and Tecumseh Trolley, have responded to TARTA’s latest charter notice, which had a Dec. 28 response deadline. Mr. Gee said he hopes to negotiate new agreements with those firms under which TARTA could resume chartering trolley buses.

But Mr. Pixley said he doesn’t intend to cooperate with TARTA unless Tecumseh Trolley is getting its proper share of the business. "I don’t want an agreement with them," he said. "I want them out of the market."

Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
steve@capriceshop.com
http://www.capriceshop.com

David is way ahead of you on this one. Steve and I have been working together for about a year now. We are currently considering the possibility of a new action against the local transit's and possibly MDOT since FTA has washed their hands and dumped it back into MDOTS lap.. Stay tuned, the fun is just getting started.

David E. Merrill

I think David needs to forward this to his local transit authority. It looks very promising. A bonus would be if the FTA imposed a penalty of some sort on the transit authority. Good luck.

Daryl Frenette, Premier Limousine Services Ltd.Red Deer, Alberta, Canada