NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL EVENT

2008 Going Green Conference: Building, Technology & Practices

Thursday, October 9, 2008, 7:30-11:45 a.m., Doubletree Hotel, Rohnert Park

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Fairfield firm wins Napa transit bid, will seek other deals

NORTH BAY – A growing Solano County transit provider says it wants to expand throughout the North Bay after winning a six-year, $12.8 million contract to run public bus systems in Napa County.

Fairfield-based MV Transportation Inc. was approved to replace the French firm Veolia Transportation as the operator of the Vine public bus network and Vine Go paratransit systems. Veolia bid $17.5 million on a new contract, a 37 percent premium above the MV proposal.

The contract change, approved last week by the directors of the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency, represents the first time that the county has selected a new bus operator since 1991.

Veolia entered the North Bay in 2005 when it acquired the U.S. bus operator ATC and took over its contracts. In addition to the Napa contracts, Veolia also has a five-year, $35 million agreement to run the Sonoma County Transit inter-city bus system through 2011.

An MV spokeswoman said that following the success of the company’s Napa County bid, it has its sights set on Sonoma.

“Once an RFP is submitted, we’ll absolutely submit a proposal,” MV spokeswoman Nikki Frenney said of Sonoma County. “We’re always looking for opportunities to help our local communities improve their bus service.”

A spokesman for Sonoma County Transit was not available to comment.

In selecting a new provider, the Napa County officials consulted other agencies – including Sonoma County Transit – and graded both Veolia and MV in 13 different categories, such as experience, customer service and the quality of references from other customers.

Napa did not give MV extra consideration because it is a domestic company headquartered nearby, the agency’s Executive Director Jim Leddy said.

“As much as we like to support a local company, we need to go with whomever is going to deliver the best ridership experience for the dollar, and in this case it happened to be the local provider,” said Mr. Leddy.

The agency’s current contracts with Veolia expire on June 30, following a two-and-a-half-year, no-bid extension approved in 2004.

According to Mr. Leddy, the agency is not required to seek new bids when contracts expire, but after 17 years without an open bidding process, it was pressured to do so by the Federal Transit Administration, which recommends funding for local transit.

MV was founded in 1975 with three employees and now has nearly 12,000 employees operating buses in 24 states, according to Ms. Frenney. The company employs about 100 people at its Fairfield headquarters and slightly more than that at a support center in Elk Horn, Iowa.