AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Transportation plans to phase out its van-pool program by May 1, but it hopes participants will transition to a private company that offers a similar service.
Sue Moreau, who manages passenger services for MDOT, said the change was precipitated by finances and not a lack of participation.
“People have been surprised and some are a little unnerved because it’s a change,” she said Monday. “But we feel like we’re saving the program.”
Not everyone was pleased.
Virginia deLormier travels from Newport or Fairfield to Augusta in a GoMaine van. She said participants were notified late last week and have little time to make other arrangements.
“I want to know if they considered anything else before they made this decision,” she said in an interview Monday.
The van-pool program, a service of GoMaine, has been around since 2002 and serves about 250 Mainers. When the program started, there were about 10 routes, Moreau said. Now there are more than twice that many.
Moreau said MDOT realized in recent years that the impending cost of replacing its vans was going to be prohibitive. Participants subsidize the program through a monthly fee, but that covers only gas and maintenance. The fee is based on the number of miles traveled. Bangor to Augusta costs $200 a month. Portland to Augusta costs $175 a month.
“As we started looking at replacing vehicles, we saw that federal funding was becoming less available and our own resources were drying up too,” she said, referring to U.S. DOT grants that help replace aging fleets. “That’s when we started looking at other options.”
One of those options is VPSI Inc., a private firm based in Michigan that is prepared to take over the GoMaine routes.
“For the state to transition to a private model made sense,” Moreau said. “They can get the same number of vehicles and they might be able to expand where we have been at capacity for awhile.”
The demand is not likely to decrease anytime soon. As the price of gas continues to rise, more and more Mainers likely will be looking at other options. Although the van-pool program will be transitioned to the private sector, Moreau said GoMaine still will offer other ride-sharing options.
She said she didn’t know what the price difference would be for users to shift to a private service. In some cases, private firms have bigger vans than the 12-passenger vehicles in the GoMaine fleet, which could drive the cost down.
“We don’t have a contract and we’re not subsidizing that program, but we weren’t before,” Moreau said.
DeLormier said one of her fellow riders contacted VPSI on Monday to get a quote. Riders from Newport to Augusta now pay $155 per month. On a VPSI van, that would be $287 a month, the rider was told.
“Everyone who rides now would probably be willing to pay a little more because of high gas prices, but that’s almost double,” she said.
Never knew this program even existed…must have been a well-kept secret…
LEFT OVERS FROM THE PREVIOUS LIBERAL ADMINISTRATION.
Another State move by finding a buyer out of state. Calling the State of Michigan this time to take over something that apparently nobody in Maine is capable of doing….
As far as I know, the drivers are the users of the van service. There are no salary or benefits costs.
Also, this program actually began in 1997.
Translation, we pimped the Feds for free vans. The participants( people who benefited) never covered the whole cost even with the vans being “free”. so basically this was a poor business model wasting taxpayer money which is so typical!
Is anyone not seeing the real reason behind this? Lepage and VPSI are in cahoots. VPSI wanted more business, Lepage is giving it to them by cutting off the GoMaine vanpool riders and “outsourcing” them to the new company. Athis has sweetheart deal written all over it.
If the price increase for the Newport to Augusta run is true and pans out across the whole system, the plan is going to backfire. People might pay a little more, but not a lot.
Additionally, MDOT is not keeping its promise to maintain Park & Ride lots. Meanwhile, car and vanpoolers continue to pay taxes and get nothing. Gee thanks, Governor.
The program has 250 people in it which is subsidized by taxpayers. Let them lease their own van and get the government out of the car pool business. It would be interesting to know how many of these people are State employees?
All the free rides are over people.
They weren’t free. Twice the price is more like price gouging.
Free market price not subsidized Government price. Like I said the free ride is over.
Many more privatizing initiatives coming and I don’t mind. I just wish they weren’t going to out of state companies and paying the laid off workers min. wage. The “dumbing down” effect.
Why dont the people who abused this simply drive their own car like the rest of us?
The state of Maine needs to exit all these programs!
Did it occur to you that these people were trying to save a few bucks, reduce wear and tear on their cars, reduce wear and tear on our highways, and help the environment by vanpooling. Is that some kind of cardinal sin?
Please share with all of us how using and paying for a service equates to “abuse.” They all paid monthly fees to use the system. The state subsidy was minimal compared to public subsidies for other programs like municipal bus service, Amtrak, schools, and a whole host of other things.
Are students “abusing” the school system, which is funded entirely by tax dollars? Are motorists “abusing” the roads?
I hope the new company can provide a similar service for a similar cost. Public transit is rare in a state like Maine, and a lot of people have to commute a long way. With gas prices what they are, people need all the help they can get.
State should not be in the business of running vans, the state is 120 mill in the hole, it has to stop wasting tax payer money and cut, this is another example of waste!
I can think of a lot of state programs that waste a lot more money than the vanpools (which BTW are nothing more than a mode of public transportation). How about EBT cards that food stamp recipients use to buy twinkies? How about Maine’s Office of Substance Abuse, which generously pays heroin addicts to drive to and from methadone clinics? How about the MTA’s Paul Violette, and MSHA’s high-priced junkets for its employees?
At least the poeple who used the van pools have jobs, pay taxes, pay the majority of the program costs, and are productive members of society.
If you find the van pool so objectionable, how about other public transportation? If you don’t think it should be defunded altogether, then you are being a hypocrite.