Specifications include, but are not limited to: Monday through Friday, fixed-route, commuter bus service serving Crawford, La Crosse, Monroe, and Vernon counties with the cities of La Crosse, Prairie du Chien, Sparta/Tomah, and Viroqua and those communities between these cities being the primary service area. Qualified contractors are being sought to provide commuter bus services in the specified service area and under the conditions set forth herein. The service requested will be a fixed-route bus service that is made available to the general public. SMRT is an important service in providing reliable, convenient, and affordable transportation to a wide range of commuters. Contractors must demonstrate a commitment to implementing successful, rural transit systems as demonstrated by growing ridership and a high level of customer satisfaction. 1. Service. Scheduled service is normally five days a week with specific daily hours identified in this solicitation. The scheduled service will encompass four fixed routes running multiple times of day and identified as the blue, green, red, and yellow routes with some route modification as a function of the time of day. SMRT does not operate on New Years Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. Detailed schedules including the daily frequency of each route and locations of stops are found in Appendix 1. The service is also available to disabled individuals with the contractor responsible for assisting such passengers into and out of the accessible vehicle. 2. Vehicles. Four primary buses (one of which is a new vehicle that will be delivered in late 2018) and two backup buses will be available through a lease arrangement with the City. These buses each seat approximately 20 ambulatory passengers and 2 passengers using wheelchairs [20/2], plus up to 6 additional seated passengers on fold-away seats when wheelchair securements are not in use. Other required services include telephone communications with users, SMRT website maintenance, dispatching, driving, vehicle maintenance, and record keeping.
