Post-COVID-19 Budget and Service Plan for Solano Express
The four SolanoExpress (SE) routes were significantly reduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, cutting service hours to less than half and reducing both service frequency and span of service. Service frequency, which had been increased to approximately every half hour in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019-20, was scaled back to generally one to two hours. Currently, fares are not being collected on the four SolanoExpress routes or the local fixed routes operated by Solano County Transit (SolTrans), Fairfield and Suisun Transit (FAST) or Vacaville City Coach.
STA and its consultant team have analyzed the SE service cuts and the estimated loss of revenues and projected available resources for the remainder of FY 2019-20. Together they have developed an updated SolanoExpress budget for the remainder of FY 2019-20. Additionally, an initial budget and modified service plan have been developed which has been projected to provide enough resources to fund a total of 40,000 hours of SolanoExpress service for FY 2020-21 (based on a budget of $7.8 million) for the Red, Blue, Yellow and Green Lines. This information has been provided by STA to staff from SolTrans and FAST so they can prepare to implement the recommended service changes in a timely manner following approval by the STA Board.