City’s Transportation Department Backs $41 Million Plan For First Transit to Run City’s Buses, Dial-A-Ride

A City Council committee this week will discuss a proposal to renew the services of First Transit Inc., the company that has been operating the Pasadena Transit bus as well as Dial-A-Ride since 2003, with a new contract for a five-year period – July 2021 through June 2026 – at a cost of over $41 million.

First Transit’s current contract with the City is set to expire on June 30 this year.

On Tuesday, May 25, the City Council’s Municipal Services Committee will start discussions on the Transportation Department’s recommendation for a new contract with First Transit Inc.

The City Council is expected to hear a final recommendation and possibly act on it during its regular meeting on June 7.

The proposed contract is the result of a screening process starting with the publication of a federally-compliant Request for Proposals (RFP) last November. Aside from the publication, copies of the RFP were sent by email to at least 15 firms.

A mandatory pre-proposal meeting was held online on November 12, 2020, with representatives of the 15 firms.

Four proposals were received last December, and out of the four, one was deemed incomplete. The remaining three proposals were deliberated on by an evaluation committee composed of Transportation Department employees and two representatives from Metro.

Of the three, all of which are among the top transportation contractors in the nation, First Transit Inc. earned the most points according to a selection criteria used by the evaluation committee.

First Transit Inc. has over 90 full-time employees in its Pasadena location, with over 34 percent of them having served the company for over 10 years; about 10 percent of the employees have been operating Pasadena’s transit services for over 20 years.

The proposed contract term of five years may be extended for an additional two years upon the City Manager’s discretion, according to the Department of Transportation’s report.