Request for Proposal: Information Technology / Intelligent Transportation Systems Study Consultant

December 29th, 2011

Introduction to TCAT and Purpose of Study

Overview of Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit
TCAT, Inc (Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc.) is a not-for-profit corporation that provides public transportation for Tompkins County, a rural county in upstate New York of approximately 100,000 residents. While TCAT serves all parts of the county, the majority of the service focuses on the census-defined Ithaca Urbanized Area (UZA), with a population of approximately 52,000. TCAT serves over 3.5 million passenger trips every year, traveling more than 1.7 million miles over 113,000 hours in revenue service. The fleet currently consists of 55 buses, 8 of which are hybrid-electric diesel buses, 4 of which are gasoline 16-passenger vans, and the remaining 43 vehicles are standard 30'-40' diesel buses. TCAT also offers complimentary ADA Paratransit services through a subcontractor, Gadabout. TCAT exhibits relatively lean staffing levels, with 23 administrative employees, 85 bus operators, and 19 maintenance staff.

Partial Summary of Purpose of IT/ITS study
By nature, the public transportation industry is necessarily data intensive, even at a relatively small agency like TCAT. To name a few examples: TCAT operates 36 fixed transit routes consisting of approximately 1,800 unique transit trips each week. Each of these trips details specific stopping times at anywhere from 3 to 15 bus stops (time points) in a service area with over 250 defined stops and countless undefined stops. Each unique trip is also assigned a bus operator from a pool of approximately 85 operators, as well as one of the 43 buses that are in operation during the peak commuting period. Each constellation of routes, trips, stops, stopping times, buses, and operators constitutes a service period of only 4 months; that is, 3 times each year, all service characteristics are subject to changes ranging from minor adjustments to major reorganizations of routes and schedules. Accompanying each new service period is a bidding process by which bus operators select daily work schedules............

January 25, 2012

15 questions have been received in reference to this project. These questions and answers can be downloaded from the related files section below.

Download attached document for complete RFP.