Charm City Circulator ridership plunges after bumpy transition to new operator

Circulator service was disrupted during the transition to the new operator. Two of the system’s four routes were suspended without notice on RMA’s first day running the system, which officials attributed to a shortage of buses that had undergone safety testing.

And RMA Worldwide initially had not trained all its drivers as required and had contracted another shuttle company to run one of the four routes because of the bus shortage, officials acknowledged in response to reporting by The Baltimore Sun in March.

Baltimore paid RMA Worldwide $3.4 million under an extended emergency contract to run the service before awarding the company a three-year, $26 million contract last month to be the Circulator’s permanent operator.

The city owns 12 Circulator buses and is leasing six cut-away minibuses from RMA, Penny said. Only 10 to 12 of those are out on streets on any given day, Penny said, “because of the constant maintenance issues that we’re having.”

“That’s part of the reason we had to purchase new vehicles,” he said.

The city has set aside more than $1 million for upgrades to its current buses and has ordered six additional buses, which will arrive in November or December, with two new ones coming per year after that, he said.

The city eventually wants to have 18-24 buses running on the system, arriving every 10 to 15 minutes, he said.

Penny said he did not know whether subcontractors are still helping RMA Worldwide run the system. Kevin Polite, RMA’s general manager of the Circulator, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Circulator also will undergo a rebranding, with new bus wraps, improved technology and other upgrades to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, Penny said.

“We’re hoping to have the fleet in a better place than where it is right now around March, February of next year,” he said.

The debut of dockless electric scooters in Baltimore also likely took a bite out of Circulator ridership, Penny said. The scooters have been popular: More than a quarter of a million rides were taken on them in the first month of Baltimore’s dockless scooter pilot program and many more are on the street now.

Charm City Circulator ridership peaked at nearly 4.4 million in the 2014 fiscal year and already had slid by 44 percent over the ensuing five years before last year’s drop, according to DOT data. Of all the routes, only the Banner, which runs between Fort McHenry and the Inner Harbor, has seen increased ridership, Penny said.

Despite the drop in ridership, none of the system’s routes, which have faced planned cutbacks and cancellation in the past, are being altered or eliminated, Penny said. The city uses general funds and parking revenue to pay for the free bus system, which runs at a deficit.

“All the routes are staying as-is,” he said.

The year-to-year drop in ridership is “dubious," given the service disruption and bus shortage, said Sandy Sparks, a member of the Charles Village Civic Association and longtime rider and supporter of the Circulator.

But Sparks, who attended Thursday’s presentation, was happy to hear the city’s plans to move ahead with a new contract, new buses and a new branding campaign.

“They really have made a commitment with the new contract,” she said. “If they were going to kill the Circulator, it would’ve happened by now.”