On the Road to Success

A Transit company that cares for its passengers and is on the route to upgrades and expansion

 

It takes a keen understanding of the ridership experience to provide the very best transit options. Roadrunner Transit has figured out how to navigate this road to success.

Offering a high-caliber passenger experience while always looking for ways to improve and upgrade their valued services in addition to facing the transit issues of tomorrow, Roadrunner Transit has set its sights on the long-term passenger journey.

“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 issues that we have seen on the routes and we are trying to address that.”

“We put in driver barriers which work to serve and protect the drivers,” he relays.

Bartholomew continues by explaining that Roadrunner Transit is looking into strengthening its safety process by assessing techniques or materials that would strengthen the existing barriers and prevent possible damage while enhancing driver safety.

“All of our drivers are trained in de-escalation skills and we are also looking to increase security at our intermodal center which would fall under our fiscal budget for 2026,” Bartholomew says.

Timing for such security initiatives is ideal, Bartholomew notes. With the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requiring all transit systems to carry out a safety assessment and track safety trends such as the number of transit driver assaults, safety changes will be falling under this process.

“We actually have to do a report and send it back to the FTA so all of the safety focus is top of the mind currently.”

Driving infrastructure improvements with electric results

Roadrunner Transit is also keeping its future efficient operations top of the agenda. With the opening of a brand new facility and heading down the road towards increased electrification of its fleet, Bartholomew relays that the passenger experience will be further enhanced.

“We have been building a new maintenance and operations facility on the west side of town. So we will be moving from our old facility that dates back to 1986 into our new facility by late February,” he states.

“This facility is where we are building the infrastructure for charging our electric buses. We got the electric company to put in a new transformer so right now charging is on permanent power at the new facility.”

Bartholomew continues, “We have ordered our second order of battery electric buses for a fixed route, the large buses and we are getting six of them which are scheduled to be delivered in late 2025.”

This will increase Roadrunner Transit’s current electric fleet to 11 once they have arrived and officially put into service. Bartholomew summarizes that of the 20 buses of the fixed route fleet over half will be battery-electric buses by the summer.

With this anticipated electric expansion, Roadrunner Transit will potentially have the ability to look at battery electric buses for its paratransit fleet.

The new facility, Bartholomew points out, will offer six large maintenance bays and will include improved facilities for its demand response staff which are currently working in small quarters.

“Our drivers for the first time will have large lockers so they can change their clothes there and there will also be restrooms with showers as well as better amenities for our drivers with better rooms for conducting meetings and training.”

Bartholomew also draws attention to the facility’s parts shop which will allow for work on the fleet to be carried out without coordinating with the city.

“We won’t be beholden to the City’s fleet department for ordering parts and special needs for our buses. We are very excited about this.”

“We really are evolving into a standalone city department and are very pleased about the opportunities that this will bring,” he offers.

Running the electric fleet on route

With all the good news that the new facility brings, Bartholomew does point out that expanding the battery-operated buses does come with its own set of challenges.

“Our buses are not those battery electric buses that can do a full daily route without having to be taken off route and be recharged.”

So we have to figure out and properly and smoothly switch our vehicles so that a bus can be brought back to the facility to be charged,” he continues.

To help streamline this process, Roadrunner Transit is actively trying to obtain funding for the next step of electrification.

“The next step would be to put in inductive charging at our intermodal center here, four pads where the buses pull in and they dwell for around seven minutes when they pull in.”

“This way we are going to be able to keep those electric buses out all day without having to switch them out which is going to make them a lot more comparable to how a diesel bus would service us,” he elaborates.

Roadrunner Transit is reaching out to the state to help fund the project and will include it in its grant applications for this fiscal year.

“We are also working with El Paso Electric to put in microgrids which are battery storage units at the cheapest rates. Then we can use that power to charge up the buses at the inductive charging pads during the day and reduce the cost of operating the buses.”

The route ahead

To further modernize its fleet, Road Runner has adopted new technology to enhance the passenger journey and route planning.

“On our fixed routes service and our demand response service, we are implementing user apps. We are using a company called Passio for our fixed route and Via for our demand response service. The software is going to make for a much better experience for our customer.”

These apps will also help Roadrunner Transit obtain background data that will be needed to collect for its annual reporting to the FTA.

“Our new buses will also all have automated passenger counters. So for the first time, we are going to be able to analyze bus ridership. Where people get on and off and on a stop basis and on a time of day basis as well.”

With 2024 ridership numbers up 31% from 2023, the road forward looks to be bright for Road Runner Transit.

Paratransit numbers are also impressive with a near doubling of ridership numbers in 2024 compared to the year prior.

Adding a Sunday and expanded Saturday service is potentially on the horizon, Bartholomew highlights.

The GPS is set for success and Roadrunner Transit is making all the right moves to ensure a seamless passenger experience ahead as well as continuing to take care of its valuable drivers on the road.

At a Glance

Who: Road Runner Transit,
What: Transit service was established in 1986 and working to electrify its fleet as well as enhance the customer experience
Where: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Website: https://lascruces.gov/