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National ® Oil Seals. • • • 100 < m ETRO m AGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 metro-magazine.com mile trip that takes 30 to 40 minutes, de- pending on trafc. However, even with taxpayer support, it would have been overly ambitious and expensive to start such a service without an established base of airport passengers." In 2011, TheRide reached out with a formal bid to partner with a private car- rier to launch and operate a new airport shuttle service. " We p r o p o s e d a c o n t r a c t u n d e r which we'd boost the frequency of daily roundtrips, as well as provide the logis- tics, drivers, vehicles and fuel to operate that segment on TheRide's behalf. We also agreed to brand the segment 'Air- Ride' to stay consistent with TheRide's family of services branding," says Chad Cushman, VP, Indian Trails. "Because we already had infrastructure in place, our bid proposal was competitive. We were able to expand the service and re- duce the cost by putting private resourc- es to public use." Th e s hu tt l e s e r v i c e s e r ve s n e a r l y 60,000 passengers a year. Standard one- way fares are as low as $12 between Ann Arbor and DT W. Michigan Flyer also provides airport shuttle service for cus- tomers in East Lansing that comple- ments the public transportation leg be- tween Ann Arbor and DTW. AirRide's $1.3 million budget does not include any funds from local prop- MICHIGAN FLYER SERVICE: Air Ride PARTNERS: Indian Trails Inc., its subsidiary Michigan Flyer, and the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (TheRide) In 2006, Michigan Flyer was founded by Indian Trails and Okemos Travel as the frst intercity bus carrier to serve De- troit Metro Airport (DTW) on a daily, regularly-scheduled basis. Following the adoption of a 30-year vision calling for better regional pub- lic transit connections in 2011, TeRide and Michigan Flyer formed a P3 to op- erate a new public transportation ser- vice, "AirRide," with 12 daily roundtrips s c h e d u l e d b e t w e e n A n n A r b o r a n d DTW, beginning in April 2012. Te new partnership increased the daily fre - quency of roundtrips from eight to 12 on the Ann Arbor/DTW segment of Michi- gan Flyer's route from East Lansing. Michael Ford, CEO of TheRide, ex- plains the partnership came about when residents in the Ann Arbor area said they needed a convenient, afordable and re- liable way to get to and from DTW. "In the transportation world, con- venient usually means frequent, and we wanted to establish a public tran- sit service that would make at least 12 roundtrips a day," Ford says. "It's a 25- MOTORCOACH PARTNERSHIPS Through their experience with P3s and working with Transportation Management Associations, Krapf's Coaches has been able to secure even more work, including shuttle service for the corporate center at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 98