Prince William: We can stop funding commuter bus service in Manassas, right?

Transit funding crisis

The cost Prince William County taxpayers shelled out to support the local bus system this year: $15.5 million.

Neighboring jurisdictions in the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park paid a combined $576,000.

Those cities only pay for OmniLink local bus service, while Prince William County is the majority funder of both the local bus and OmniRide commuter bus service.

Residents from Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park ride both local and commuter buses, but only Prince William County funds the commuter buses.

The numbers are included in a new report on the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commissioned ordered by Prince William officials as they wrangle with how to address a $12 million budget shortfall for the agency.

One option to make up for the lost cash: Ask the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park to pay up.

“Why are we paying for OmnRide service for the City of Manassas?,” Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairman At-large Corey Stweart asked of PRTC Interim Director Eric Marx. “We have the authority to stop it, right?’

In a sense, the Board does but it wouldn’t be pretty.

“Those buses operating on a federal subsidy. If you start trying to stop those buses on those routes that operate on federal subsidies, who serve the handicapped, you’re going to be in trouble, or we all will,” warned Neabsco District Supervisor John Jenkins.

Marx told Stewart at the Board that even if OmniRide buses were to stop serving streetside bus stops and commuter lots in Manassas and Manassas Park, city residents would still drive to county commuter lots to board the buses.

Historically, Manassas and Manassas Park have never funded OmniRide commuter buses. It’s one thing city officials are looking into in light of the agency’s budget shortfall.

“The history of PRTC and its bus operations has a long and complex history which pre-dates almost everybody currently serving on [the Manassas City] Council or the [Prince William County] Board. We are researching why things are the way they are but don’t have answers yet,” said Manassas City Councilman Jonathan Way.

PRTC faces a $9 million budget shortfall in 2017, and a $12 million shortfall every year after. Declining revenues from the 2.1% motor fuels tax collected at Northern Virginia gas pumps due to lower fuel prices and more efficient cars, and lower federal and state subsidies leave the agency looking at cutting back service in what it dubs a “transit death spiral.”

The Board of Supervisors must decide to keep its funding of PRTC at current levels, which is not enough to keep the service operating as it does today. The Board will wrangle with the issue over the coming months before a new budget is approved in April.

Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi says the bus system is vital to the region, and he proposed this funding idea to keep the buses rolling: 

During the Dec. 8 Board of County Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Frank Principi introduced amended legislation to address the budget shortfall faced by Potomac Rappahannock Transit Commission (PRTC), the bus system relied on by many Prince William County residents for inter and intra county transportation.

Principi’s amended resolution authorizes County staff to consider using 50 percent of the annual funds received from Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) to help close PRTC’s anticipated operational shortfalls in FY17-21. Each year, NVTA disburses 30 percent of its funds directly to member jurisdictions for use in local projects.

If initiated, the County subsidy to PRTC is proposed to begin July 1, 2016, and continue through FY21.