Metro Magazine, September/October 2015
What new initiatives has your operation undertaken that are proving to be successful We have added a good presence in the Center City part of Philadelphia in the last couple of years where weve recently gotten two fairly high profile shuttles One is the Philadelphia Navy Yard shuttle system which is operated by five full size transit buses The ridership on that service has been unbelievable A couple of big players over there include Urban Outfitters and GlaxoSmithKlein The service has had to cater to the younger crowd especially with Urban Outfitters presence so our vehicles have bike racks Wi Fi and a GPS generated app that provides real time bus information Even more recently we took over operation of the Philadelphia Phlash which is a tourism service that we operate with seven New Flyer MiDis we purchased through ABC Companies It is a high profile service where weve upgraded the equipment from the previous provider and doubled ridership in the first year and a half What has been key to securing those types of contracts We bought the rights to a fixed route service in the early 90s that was dying We immediately invested in new equipment and did some common sense stuff such as put bus signs up printed up to date schedules and most importantly maintained the printed schedule Through that process we started building relationships throughout the communities we were working with To build the fixed route service we had to get the buy in from the boroughs and townships to do things like get bus shelters installed so we had to initiate those conversations Also Pennsylvania has Transportation Managements Associations in each of its suburban counties These organizations facilitate mobility options including ridesharing road projects bicycling and telecommuting so forming relationships with these groups helped grow our outreach We got in with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority which got us closer to the Philadelphia crowd and ultimately the Navy Yard and Philadelphia Phlash contracts There were formal RFP processes that we went through to get those jobs but our operation was getting recommendations before the bidding even began by working with some of the engineering firms that 68 mETRO mAGAZINE SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015 metro magazine com MOTORCOACH REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE Gary D Krapf President Krapfs Coaches Inc West Chester Pa
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