ANR ride share program still rebuilding ridership after COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a loss of participation in ride share services like the one offered by the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, but the organization still uses state assistance to fill financial gaps while it rebuilds.
ANR executive director Chris Lunn and director of transportation Cody Slater said the organization’s ride share program has relied on the state Department of Transportation’s service stabilization grant to cover the program’s losses since the pandemic began.
“(PennDOT) pretty much looks at your shared ride services’ operating loss and determines what you need,” Lunn said Monday, Feb. 8.
For the current fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, the program received $330,000 from the state. However, Lunn said the state gave them more money than needed to cover its projected losses.
“We might only need $100,000 or $120,000 for that, depending on costs of stuff. Hopefully, maintenance stays low and gas prices stay low as all that plays a factor in the total overall cost,” he said.
The program offers different types of services, from non-fixed route options like Butler Area Rural Transit to the Medical Assistance Transportation Program.
Lunn said their services, and ones like it across the region, saw about a 70% drop in ridership during the initial shutdown. It took several years to even begin recovering.
“Since our fiscal year 2022-23, we’ve started to see increases every year of trips being added back on. It’s a good thing because that means less of those subsidies needed,” he said.
Lunn and Slater said ANR and similar programs were able to maintain their hours and routes through this funding. Recently, the program even added three new routes for a new total of 49.
“The one thing PennDOT kind of recognized with giving every county an operating subsidy is us and all of them have been able to keep our routes and try to keep our hours. Even though it may not be the same number of riders on those routes, those people who are riding those still need to share a ride,” Lunn said.
As for regrowing ridership, Lunn said he doesn’t expect it to randomly spike to pre-COVID levels but rather keep gradually increasing year over year. He said the most important thing for the organization is to listen to what the current ridership needs.
“What COVID really did was push telehealth even more and food delivery services even more. More people are using those services, which means they’re not using the BART bus as much anymore,” he said.
While the state has given out funds on a year-to-year basis, Lunn and Slater said they are cautiously optimistic the state will continue to provide it. Part of their optimism stems from the state’s new proposed budget, which aims to continue funding transportation.
“The current administration seems to be dedicated to the transportation programs. PennDOT isn’t an organization that does a lot of optimism, but they have expressed a level of optimism with the current administration,” Slater said.
More information and applications for ANR’s ride share services can be found on its website, www.anrinfo.org/anr-transport.
