The NorthStar Commuter Train is seeing an improvement for the first three-quarters of 2015.

 

Tuesday, Commuter Rail Director John Paul Zaneska and Finance Director Ed Petrie told members of the county board things have picked up since all the problems that plagued the system last year.

 

“We are not here to provide the same message that we had last meeting,” said Zaneska. “We have had nine months of over 95% on-time performance.”

 

He said one of the big reasons was the level of track work by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) is way down from last year’s activity - even with the work beng done to add a second track between Becker and Big Lake.

 

He said there also haven’t been many operational issues, either.

 

“We had one or two mechanical failures, and not catastrophic,” he said.

 

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said he has noticed fewer complaints and better communication to passengers when there are going to be short delays.

 

Petrie updated the board on the totals for 2014. NorthStar carried 721,214 passengers last year. He said that number was down due to all the issues with delays and performance in the last quarter of 2014. NorthStar budgeted for $2,449,081 in passenger fares for 2014, but the actual revenue ended up at $2,349,875, a shortfall of $99,206.

 

But despite the lower fares, NorthStar still had a surplus of $3,634,076 for 2014.

 

Petrie said expenses were about $4.5 million for NorthStar operations in 2014. Northstar received a $1.7 million refund from BNSF. There was $1.7 million in savings on technical/maintenance contracts by doing more of the work with staff. There was also a savings of $463,000 in parts.

 

“When we originally purchased the trains, we purchased parts packages,” he said. “We were using down the rest of that inventory in 2014. We also had fewer repairs than anticipated.”

 

Insurance claims were also down more than $860,000, and rates charged to the NorthStar line by the federal government were $461,000 less than expected.

 

Petrie said utility rates and fuel costs were higher than expected, about $294,000.

 

“Our fuel prices went up quite a bit. Besides running the train up and down the track, the trains were sitting there on the tracks idling and burning fuel,” he said. “That caused our fuel consumption to go up the last quarter of the year.”

 

NorthStar’s operations budget for 2016 is increasing almost $1 million (5.5%), from $17,609,478 to $18,585,538, which includes a $100,000 increase in insurance, another $100,000 increase in professional services and a 2.4% inflation hike.

 

Petrie said NorthStar is also adding a maintenance supervisor, maintenance manager and another mechanic to gear up for some major maintenance programs.

 

He said light rail vehicles are required to have  maintenance done every 400,000 miles on major components. 

 

“The same thing will be happening on the commuter rail. It has a life of about 30 years, but it’s anticipated during that time you will do some major overhaul of components so you can get that 30-year life out of that asset,” he said. “We’re staffing up to prepare for the overhaul project.”

 

Petrie said ridership for 2015 and 2016 is projected at about the same level as 2014 (721,000). But he said those numbers are conservative and may be higher.