Via Transportation operates across the country, working in hundreds of communities from New York to Los Angeles – and now Sioux Falls joins the network.
The city council voted unanimously to approve the $12.2 million contract.
SAM, or the Sioux Area Metro service, reports ridership is up by over 25 percent year-to-date, operated by 32 drivers. The agency says they’re already short of full staffing.
Jeff Eckhoff, director of planning and development with the city, explained the terms of the contract.
“They will be creating a wholly owned subsidiary called Sioux Falls Transit, and then they’ll take on the collective bargaining agreement that is at SAM today, and they’ll be taking that over again Jan. 1,” Eckhoff said.
Eckhoff said the team made note of Via’s rider-first model.
“As we looked at the contract, we had some goals we wanted to make sure were ensured," Eckhoff said. "One of it was that we disrupted current services as little as possible. The majority of this contract remains. The fixed routes, the paratransit – which is the core of our transit system – really won’t change much. We might optimize some routes we were looking at with the transit development plan, but certainly on day one those routes will not change.”
A major advocate for the Via plan, councilor Greg Neitzert, said transit can be a tough sell for car-oriented communities.
“It’s really a big day for the users of public transit and every citizen of Sioux Falls," Neitzert said. "I think we all agree public transit is a vital service, for many it’s not optional, but at the same time we’ve struggled with whether we’ve done it as efficiently as we could and we’ve struggled with whether it’s sustainable. It’s been largely a system for captive riders, it’s a hard value proposition if you have a choice, but this is a great choice. We will serve the people who need it much better than we do now.”
Via will check data from the city transit plan before any changes to rates, fares, or cuts in services are considered. Any changes to those services will come after April of 2024.