“Roadrunner Transit has been in operation since 1986 and we are having a lot of exciting things happening now,” Michael Bartholomew relays. Serving Las Cruces and the surrounding area, this city-run transit service has learned what is important and is now in a prime position to implement some key initiatives in 2025 and beyond. “We finally added our first five battery electric buses.” Bartholomew points out that Roadrunner Transit is currently operating eight routes. As well as serving the municipal area of Las Cruces, the transit system works with the New Mexico State University and operates two routes with three buses to link the university during the semesters. The transit service also extends to include service to the adjacent town of Mesilla, New Mexico, Bartholomew adds. NO FARES LEAD TO NOTABLE SUCCESS. One key feature that Runner Transit offers that other transport services may not be able to compete with is the introduction of a no-fare service. “We have had zero fares since November of 2022 and I think that this has been helping our ridership.” “We are hitting ridership numbers that I haven’t seen in 10 or 12 years, and I have been here for 23 years. Our fixed route is pushing 80,000 trips when looking at the month of October 2024 and our demand response service is also growing,” Bartholomew offers. “So it has been a recovery from the pandemic and each year we are doing a bit more. However, starting last year it just took off, which was our first full year of zero-fare- I assume the zero fare is having some effect on ridership. Bartholomew explains that zero fare has been very popular and notes that the city council likes it as well. “I don’t see [zero fares] changing any time in the near future,” he states. SAFETY ON THE ROUTE FORWARD Roadrunner Transit has also implemented some safety protocols and measures to help facilitate the passenger experience and to help support the transit teams’ dedicated drivers while on the road. “We have had to implement some stricter passenger Code of Conduct rules because of some conduct 3 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 02 ROADRUNNER TRANSIT LAS CRUCES
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