RTC plans transfer of city bus service

Thursday, March 6, 2003 | 9:23 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission will hear public comments on the transfer of Boulder City bus service to the Southern Nevada Transit Coalition from 5 to 7 p.m. March 20 at the Boulder City Senior Center, 1001 Arizona St.

Boulder City could soon follow the mass-transit route of Laughlin and Mesquite.

The Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission is proposing taking the bus service for Boulder City out of its direct responsibility, transferring management to the Southern Nevada Transit Coalition.

The move would save the RTC and Clark County residents about $120,000 a year, RTC Assistant General Manager Curtis Myles said Wednesday. The transit coalition is a quasi-independent agency that can receive state and federal transit funds for service to rural communities, an option that is not open to the RTC, which provides bus service primarily to the urban core of Clark County.

The RTC has tentatively set April 27 for the start of the new Boulder City bus service. The proposal would have to pass the RTC board.

The RTC has set up similar bus services in Laughlin and Mesquite under the same transit coalition, which has board members from both areas. Clark County Commissioner and RTC board member Bruce Woodbury, who represents Boulder City, said the revamped service appears to be working well in the other two towns.

"The input I'm getting from folks in Laughlin and Mesquite is that the service is as good or better, and we can do it for much less cost," Woodbury said.

The RTC now operates bus service to Boulder City, a town of about 15,000, seven days a week on Route 116, which connects to the primary RTC routes in Henderson. Any service in Boulder City would continue to connect to the RTC's service area, Myles said.

Bus transfers would continue to work between the Boulder City operation and the RTC routes, he said.

As it has for Mesquite and Laughlin, the RTC would provide part of the funding for the Boulder City operation and lease one or two buses to the transit coalition, Myles said.

A similar funding scenario for Henderson and other parts of the Las Vegas Valley would probably not work, he said.

"The only reason it makes sense for Boulder City is because it is removed from our existing route structure," he said.

Mark Mahon, RTC revenue and operations administrator, said it works because of the financial impact.

"It saves the RTC money. It allows us to use our resources more effectively," he said. "We can put that money back into the core system."