With the last day of operation for the Anaheim Transportation Network planned for Tuesday, how will the shuttle system\u2019s more than 8 million annual riders get around the city\u2019s popular resort district?<\/p>\n
The network\u2019s ART bus system has served the resort area\u2019s hotels and Disneyland properties for years, as well as routes to the Anaheim Canyon Metrolink Station, the ARTIC station, downtown Anaheim and through the Platinum Triangle, but announced in January it couldn\u2019t get its financial footing<\/a> and would shut down March 31.<\/a><\/p>\n The Anaheim Transportation Network \u2014 it also ran the EVE, FRAN and Senior Wheels systems \u2014 launched in 1995 to provide a uniform transit system around the fast-growing resort area, which now draws more than 25 million visitors a year.<\/p>\n But maybe the answer for the future isn\u2019t one system, but multiple solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have the immediate, and then you\u2019ve got near term, and then you\u2019ve got longer term,\u201d Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster said.<\/p>\n The immediate<\/p>\n ATN\u2019s buses moving theme park-goers from the Toy Story Parking lot to the Disneyland Resort\u2019s main gates represented about 83% of the transportation network\u2019s total ridership for this fiscal year, or about 6.8 million riders.<\/p>\n Disney officials have said there will be continued shuttle service for their visitors, but as of Friday, they were not releasing details.<\/p>\n Also, the Disneyland Forward expansion of the theme parks includes a new parking structure that will make the parking lot obsolete in a few years.<\/p>\n The Orange County Transportation Authority has said half of the public agency\u2019s bus routes travel through the city, shadowing 75% of ATN\u2019s routes, with the remaining of the soon-to-be-extinct routes within walking distance of existing OC Bus stops.<\/p>\n \u201cOCTA understands how important dependable transit service is for thousands of workers, residents and visitors in the Anaheim Resort area,\u201d OCTA board chair Jamey M. Federico said in a statement ahead of ATN\u2019s shutdown<\/a>. \u201cOC Bus has always been a safe, reliable and affordable option in Anaheim and the surrounding communities, and we welcome everyone on board.\u201d<\/p>\n Several hotels serving the resort area are in the city of Garden Grove and its Garden Grove Tourism Improvement District, which will start a shuttle service of its own the last week of March. It is contracting with Parking Company of America.<\/p>\n The system will serve 10 hotels in Garden Grove, including the Delta Hotels by Marriott Anaheim, Great Wolf Lodge and Hyatt Regency. The tourism district, which collects up to 2.5% on nightly hotel stays, will contribute and guests using the shuttle will pay \u201ca nominal fee, allowing multiple trips,\u201d city officials said.<\/a><\/p>\n Near term<\/p>\n Anaheim officials, Lyster said, are having early discussions with operators about a \u201ccomprehensive or system-wide operator, some sort of successor to ATN.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s certainly not something that\u2019s going to happen by next week,\u201d he said, and it\u2019s just one possibility under consideration.<\/p>\n City councilmembers could be asked as soon as April to vote on buying two ATN properties with funds from the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District, which finances marketing and transit improvements around the resort area and Platinum Triangle with a 2% assessment fee collected on hotel stays.<\/p>\n The tourism district\u2019s three-person transportation committee, made up of city, hotel and Disney representatives, decided to proceed with the process to buy the properties<\/a>, which ATN board members also approved Wednesday at their meeting.<\/p>\n The properties \u20141354 S. Anaheim Blvd and 1213-1227 S. Claudina Street \u2014 collateralize $6.12 million in loans that the tourism district floated ATN in recent months to help alleviate its mounting budget deficits, so their purchase price is expected to be $6.3 million combined after accounting for the loan repayment. The lots would be city-owned, but used by the tourism district.<\/p>\n ATN has 74 vehicles in its fleet that will need to be unloaded. But their purchase is tied to federal grants that require they go toward public use.<\/p>\n The Orange County Transportation Authority \u201cat this time (has) no interest in acquiring any of (ATN\u2019s) assets,\u201d agency spokesperson Eric Carpenter said.<\/p>\n The tourism district is in the early stages of considering the purchase of part of the fleet, which could likely be leased to a group of hotels, or go toward a new operator in the resort area, Lyster said, although nothing\u2019s concrete. The purchases would be contingent on a City Council vote.<\/p>\n A few public agencies are interested in the buses, a transportation official said, and ATN will keep a handful of its staff on payroll until its assets are sold off.<\/p>\n And as of Friday, ATN officials said more than 70 of its bus drivers represented by the Teamsters Local 952 union were able to find jobs through other services offered by their employer, Parking Company of America.<\/p>\n ATN buses started rolling all those years ago to get hotel guests where they wanted to go without their cars on local streets. And in the years since, even more hotels have opened.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to remain a high-quality tourism destination. We have an amazing convention center, an amazing resort destination, an amazing venue at OCVibe, Angel Stadium, and we just work well together,\u201d said Wincome Hospitality Asset Manager and CEO Paul Sanford, whose firm manages The Westin Anaheim Resort. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a magical group, and we want to keep it that way, so our challenge is to figure out how to do that and to not have a hiccup in the service.\u201d<\/p>\n So a group of a dozen or so resort area hotels \u2014 including \u201csome of the biggest,\u201d Lyster said \u2014 are also working toward an independent shuttle system for their guests and are in the midst of selecting a provider.<\/p>\n Routes and specifics are still in the works, but Sanford is bracing for one detail that is pretty set: For hotels, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Hotels in the resort area paid into ATN based on the number of rooms. The transportation network, in hopes of surmounting its budget problems and offsetting rising labor costs, had increased last year what hotels paid annually by 5%, but did not want to go higher. Riders also paid a minimal fare.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m told by vendors,\u201d Sanford said, \u201cthat their costs could be as much as 50% to 100% more than ATN.\u201d<\/p>\n Higher costs are expected for a smaller negotiating body, Lyster said, and \u201creflects that ATN was not covering its cost.\u201d<\/p>\n The city of Anaheim last year considered taking over the struggling transportation network and signed a letter agreeing to explore the move<\/a>. But officials said earlier this year the city was no longer interested in the takeover, and, instead, Lyster said the city is eyeing transit options to link multiple billion-dollar developments around Anaheim.<\/p>\n Long term<\/p>\n The $4 billion OCVibe development underway in and around the Honda Center \u2014 what developers hype as a new downtown for the county \u2014 is building 100 acres of restaurants, housing, offices, new concert venues, a dramatic Honda Center revamp <\/a>and upgrades to the ARTIC station.<\/p>\n City officials have expressed interest in connecting the ARTIC station and OCVibe development in the Platinum Triangle to the resort area, with gondolas, trams and autonomous vehicles among the emerging transit options floated in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are at a stage right now where technology\u2019s evolving, and we\u2019re not sure which of those may be a viable alternative,\u201d Lyster said, \u201cbut that\u2019s another variable we have to look at as well.\u201d<\/p>\n