ITP – The Rapid Joins the MITN Purchasing Group for Automated Distribution
Today the Interurban Transit Partnership (ITP-The Rapid) has officially joined the MITN Purchasing Group to help simplify their bid and RFP distribution process. The MITN Purchasing Group is one of BidNet’s regional purchasing groups across all 50 states which offer participating local government agencies an e-procurement solution. The ITP (The Rapid) invites all vendors to register online with the MITN Purchasing Group to access its upcoming solicitations.
With the MITN Purchasing Group, vendors register to access one centralized location with opportunities from over 225 participating agencies throughout Michigan. By posting upcoming solicitations to the regional purchasing group, rather than their website, ITP (The Rapid) hopes to make it easier for more vendors to access their documents. They also hope to expand the reach of their solicitations to a more diverse vendor pool. Unlike the prior process of only publishing bids to a webpage, the MITN Purchasing Group provides a method to track all bid activity, including the details of vendors who have received or downloaded a bid. By providing a single, online location for managing sourcing information and activities, local Michigan government agencies minimize costs and time delays associated with the procurement process in these unprecedented times.
The ITP (The Rapid) invites all local vendors to visit and register to receive access to its upcoming solicitations as well as the bids and RFPs from over 225 other public agencies participating on the MITN Purchasing Group. Registered vendors also gain access to a team of experienced customer service support representatives and can upgrade their service to receive customized bid alerts, advanced notice of term contract expiration, and notification of a recently posted addendum.
About ITP (The Rapid):
The Interurban Transit Partnership was formed in 2000 to operate a public transportation system they named The Rapid to provide services for the Grand Rapids metro area and beyond. It is organized and operates under Michigan Public Act 196 of 1986 with a 15-member board of directors representing the six municipalities in the service area. The six cities in the Grand Raids metro area opted to partner with each other to support The Rapid, and The Rapid, in turn, promised to provide a return on that investment by delivering service as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Beyond its fixed routes, The Rapid also operates demand response services for people with disabilities, and for those living outside the fixed-route service area, car and vanpooling programs.
PEER SYSTEM COMPARISON
As part of the 2030 Transit Master Plan, an independent project team was asked to evaluate The Rapid’s performance relative to 10 peer systems, which were selected based on system size and regional demographic characteristics such as urban area population and physical size, annual vehicle revenue hours, and annual unlinked passenger trips. The selected peer systems were:
• Akron, Ohio: Metro Regional Transit Authority (Metro)
• Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA)
• Dayton, Ohio: Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (GDRTA)
• Flint, Michigan: Mass Transportation Authority (MTA)
• Lansing, Michigan: Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA)
• Louisville, Kentucky: Transit Authority of River City (TARC)
• Madison, Wisconsin: Metro Transit System (Metro)
• Nashville, Tennessee: Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)
• Rochester, New York: Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (R-GRTA)
• Toledo, Ohio: Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA)
All data is referenced from the National Transit Database (NTD) administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This data is independently audited and verified. Visit the National Transit Database site for more information.
