Privatizing the city's public bus system is not a viable option, a Minneapolis consulting firm told the StarTran Advisory Board.
If a private company bought the system, it would have to slash services and raise prices for it to be profitable, which wouldn't be good for the company or the riders, Joe Kern of SRF Consulting told the board.
City Councilman Adam Hornung asked the city's audit advisory board for the report in August. It paid SRF $104,984. Kern presented preliminary findings this week.
Hornung wanted to look at privatizing three areas: management, employees -- with buses still owned by the city -- or complete privatization.
The consulting firm didn't recommend privatization. It said the strongest potential was for Handi-van services, but it still might not be financially feasible.
Fares paid by StarTran riders cover less than 20 percent of the system's operating costs. The rest comes from federal, state and local tax support, including almost $5.8 million this year from city taxpayers.
Hornung said Wednesday he hadn't yet had a chance to look at the study and couldn't comment.
Kern said he doesn't often get to tell operations they're doing well, but he did tell StarTran.
"It can get better," he said, "but it's doing well."
Among the preliminary findings:
* There aren't many opportunities for new revenue.
* The routes are efficient cost-wise but have low ridership compared to peer markets.
* Having buses run to midnight, especially in a college town, seven days a week, could increase ridership, but it will cost more.
* Increasing the frequency of buses (10 minutes instead of every 30 minutes) in core areas like Near South and downtown could increase ridership.
* StarTran's mission isn't clear to staff and the board.
* Because of an uncertain future, the staff avoids taking risks or making changes.
* A transit authority system wouldn't work in Lincoln because of few nearby communities.
Beatty Brasch, who sits on the advisory board, said there weren't any major surprises, in her opinion.
"It sounded like they just wanted to leave it as it is," she said.
