(bright music) - There's a new bus line traveling throughout the Inland Empire from Riverside County to San Bernardino County, Monday through Friday and back.

Our guest is Lauren Skiver, she is the CEO for SunLine Transit Agency.

Welcome.

- Thank you so much, I'm so happy to be here today.

- Well, I'm really excited to talk about this project.

The new 10 commute link is provided by your agency.

Who are some of your partners in this project?

- Well, one of our major projects, our partners is Cal State University San Bernardino.

They've been moving students between the two campuses for many years and we saw an opportunity to partner with them and help them to provide world-class transit service to their students, and also provide a link to other residents of the Coachella Valley to point west.

As you may know, the Coachella Valley is often 10 corridor.

There aren't a lot of transportation options for those who either don't want to drive or don't have a car to drive.

And so this service does two things.

It allows the students here to access the classes that are out at the main campus in San Bernardino.

It also allows students to access the campus out here in the Coachella Valley, allow staff to move back and forth between the two campuses and then allows all of our residents here to have access to the campus along with the Omnitrans main station where they can connect to Metrolink and many other transit systems, giving them mobility throughout Western and all the way up to Northern California, if you want to take transit.

- Okay, well, let's break that down a little bit.

Let me talk about the project first and then we'll talk about maybe the different stops and some more details about it.

How long has this project been in the planning stages and how did it come about?

What did you and the college get together and say, we need this for our students?

Or how did it come about?

And how long did it take to pull it off?

- Well, we've been working on Refueled for three years and it's a whole compliment of service changes, but we'll concentrate on the 10 commuter link today.

We knew that the college had been moving students through private transportation and paying for that movement for many years.

And we had approached the college to say, that's what we do as a business where public transit agency, we have world-class drivers and vehicles to provide this service.

And we saw it as a way to not only help the campus with our service for public transit, but also to open up this opportunity for others to ride students routinely in a program, need a class, maybe at another campus, our campus out here for the San Bernardino College is a satellite campus for right now and they're moving towards the main campus, and so many of those students do need to access the main campus in San Bernardino to finish their programs, to do specific classes.

There are also a lot of students out here that are into sports and participate on college sport level and so they needed an opportunity to be able to get to campus if they didn't have a car or would like to, I mean, many people loved to ride transit, you can do your homework, you can do all kinds of things while you have a professional driver at the wheel.

And so I think that, that was the impetus of us getting involved and I think that the college saw the benefits of having a public transit agency deliver that service to their students.

- Right, so let's talk about the route specifically.

Where it starts and the different stops along the way and where it ends?

- Well, it starts in Indio.

Indio is the largest city in the Coachella Valley and so there are a lot of residents there, and there are a lot of students that live in the Indio area in the Coachella Valley.

We also stop in the Beaumont-Banning area, that is a connection to Riverside Transit.

There's also Cabazon nearby and the Morongo Casino, there are workers that need to transfer there in order to access jobs.

And then we go to the campus itself because one of the benefits of this service is pretty direct service between Indio, we do stop, I should have told you, we do stop at the campus here in Palm Desert - Okay.

- and Cal State San Bernardino campus in the Desert, then onto Beaumont, and then onto the main campus.

So we can make sure that students get there at the right times.

We've worked with the campus to make sure that their bell times and times for starts of classes and ends works with the service profile that we've developed, but it also expands out areas for folks to travel who may be going on leisure trips, to work, or another business in either Riverside or San Bernardino County.

- Okay, so as you just described, you're gonna stop at your Desert Campus first and then onto Banning-Beaumont region, and then directly to Cal State San Bernardino.

How long is that commute when your student gets on in Indio to all the way to Cal State, what's the time element there?

- Well, with the stops, I think it goes from the campus to the other campus, it's about an hour and a half.

Again, that is, could be quicker, a little quicker, it could be a little longer, the 10 corridor is quite busy, but that's the time we have posted in the route right now.

We hope with some of the projects happening on the roadway, on the 10 corridor that will improve.

- Yes.

(laughs) - But as you know, traveling in Southern California, no matter where you're trying to go can be a time intensive.

I think the benefit though, of riding transit, we do have wifi on all these vehicles and so being able to do something else, especially if you're a student and getting ready for that homework that you may have had not enough time (Lillian laughs) to get completed, will be a benefit for some of those students.

I know I'm in school, I'm an artful procrastinator, I call it.

So if I could have a way to ride an hour and a half, and get prepared for that next lesson in my classes, I think that would be a benefit to me as well.

- I love it the artful procrastinator.

That's calling it nicely.

So what are the times when can you get on and does it go only one time or is it throughout the day?

Tell me the route or how that the time element works.

- Well, there are several buses available to our riders and, you know, we did that because in the past when we've had commuter services, one of the limitations is about just how many times the bus travels.

- All right.

- You don't want to get away from home and have one opportunity to get back.

I mean, it's kind of counterintuitive to us - Exactly.

- as humans, to have just these very few options.

And so I think that one of the things that we've worked on is looking at the college and what times that they need students to get there, and balancing that with what our customers need.

And so we have the first bus that leaves at our Golf Center Parkway, which is that Indio location where I had mentioned it starts, it leaves at 5:20 AM.

We have bus at 7:50 AM, 12:50 PM and 2:50 PM.

And then that's all, we also have reverse trips back, so that gives people an opportunity that may have gone on that first bus, did their class, they have options to return, they don't have to wait all day to try to get a bus back to the Coachella Valley, or if they take a class out here in the Coachella Valley, they have a way to get back to San Bernardino, or to wherever location along the way that they needed to get to.

And I think that's another key factor that we've really tried to take into consideration is the fact that when people are going an hour and a half from home, they need to have one or more options to get back.

Otherwise it becomes a little bit more of a challenge to understand that you'll have a backup plan.

Because remember everything changes, right?

When you get running late, you lose track of time, you've got to have a way to get back to be secure in that transportation option in that choice.

- Okay, so your time is leaving from the Indio area or 5:20, 7:50, 12:50, and 2:50.

And then leaving from the Cal State Campus, do you know, can you tell me the times going back?

- Well from the Cal State Campus, you would come back to our location at 8:45, 11:45, 3:45 or 5:45.

- So that really is opportunity for throughout the day, depending when their classes are and even employees or workers.

So, if somebody works and can make that happen as well, leaving at 5:20 and ending their day at 3:45 is still so workable.

So I'm glad there isn't just one option in the morning and in the afternoon, or evening.

I want to talk a little bit about the fees.

What is it cost to ride this luxury liner, I guess.

- And it is a luxury liner, it's an over the road vehicle, nice comfy seats, armrest, reclined.

And so right now, if you're a senior over 60, it's $4.

So we do offer discounts for people with disabilities and seniors to ride our service, and so that would be a $4.

And adult or youth it's $6 to ride, so it's a pretty big bargain to ride all the way - Yeah.

- to San Bernardino for $6.

We also have passes available for people who do regular commuting, so that they could get some kind of break on what it costs to ride.

And then we have haul pass, so students, staff, and faculty ride the service for free.

Now this is supplemented by the campus, so they do pay those fairs.

So one thing people may not understand about California transit, we actually do have laws in place where we have to collect fair and we have to collect revenue for the services we provide.

I think that's changing, I think there's starting to be more work done on whether services should be free or not and we're all on top of that as well at SunLine.

But for now, the campus actually does supplement the fair for its students by paying SunLine directly for those trips that we provide in the student rides that are taken.

- Okay, so let me understand this.

You have a $4 from Indio to San Bernardino or from San Bernardino into a one-way it's $4, right?

- That's for a senior.

- Right, and then you have, - Yes.

- and then you have the $6 rate.

Again, one-way and then passes, so if they're traveling more than a couple of times a week for work, or what have you, there are passes available, meaning it's a commute they're making more regularly.

And then you have, what we're calling haul passes, and that is for the students specifically enrolled in either one of those campuses.

- Yes, if they're a student of Cal State San Bernardino, whether it's on the main campus or at the Palm Desert location, then the campus, the school actually underwrites their service costs, their fees for riding.

And this is so that folks have all kinds of access to get to the campus and don't have impediments.

I mean, many students are food insecure, they're transportation insecure, and so by providing these types of services, we open up education for those who may be struggling to access college education based on economic reasons or access reasons.

And so we're really proud of the partnership with Cal State San Bernardino and that they are really looking at the students as a whole, not just how they get to class, meaning how they get enrolled, but also how they get to class, and how we can make that easier for them, and give more access to students to finish their programs.

- Yeah, I love it.

- And do what they want to do with their lives.

- Yeah, I think it's terrific.

And I just wondering that price seems pretty fair and reasonable.

Is it covering your costs to sustain this line?

I mean, it'll be horrible to get it started and then the cost not be able to sustain it.

What are your thoughts there?

- Well, one thing people may not know about public transit is it's a subsidized business.

We are subsidized just like almost every transit agency in the entire country and California is no different.

So that actual fare doesn't cover the entire cost of the service, but SunLine received subsidies, both federal and state to operate public transit, like a library, like other types of community services.

That's how public transit is viewed and the way it's funded.

And, you know, we have to create mobility options for people.

Some people can't drive, some people don't want to drive, and some people don't have the ability to get access to rides, and so public transit is generally subsidized.

And so, there isn't probably very many services that you would be familiar with or have written that are completely get paid for by the fair, like airlines and others.

So I just think that's an important fact to bring forward.

So that $6 fare is really a bargain for our riders, but we want our riders to be able to access the service.

And to price things in which people on, no matter what their income can afford to access the areas that we're bringing them to through our services.

- Yeah, it really does seem like a reasonable rate.

Especially if you think about the gas that one would have to pay to get your vehicle back and forth, round trip.

Sometimes classes, you know, you take them on Monday, Wednesday, Friday class, or a Tuesday, Thursday class, you're at least making that commute a couple of times each week.

Now the rates that you described, you talked about seniors and we talked about students, but really anyone in the community is eligible to pay these fees and to participate and I would assume you want the more riders the better, right?

- Right, we want to put more service on this line.

And so the usage and the productivity of this line is going to be important.

We think this could be the beginning of more services to access for our Coachella Valley residents or for residents in Southern California, to access the Coachella Valley.

I mean, there are many amazing things to do out here.

There's Joshua Tree, there's lots of things to see and do.

And so by providing a connection with the bus, we see where we could actually build that ridership, not just for folks that have to use it, or for students that need to use it, for those who want to come here for leisure, to get away, for vacations and have that direct access back and forth between the two regions.

- Yeah, absolutely.

There's great reasons to travel to the Coachella Valley in general.

I can, yeah, as a sun worshiper, in my younger days, it was one of the places I'd love to be.

When did the route start?

- So the route just started on Monday and we've had great success already.

The first day, we moved many people, several people.

And this is always a challenge, when you start something new, people have to build confidence in the line, they have to understand that you're running it, you have to make sure you reach all these communities, and so generally a new route takes some buildup for folks to say, I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna put aside whatever I'm worried about, and go ahead and give it a try, and then they find out how great it is and continue to ride.

So I think that the communities here and the communities in San Bernardino, really needed this connection.

But we will be doing more marketing and doing more education to keep building that ridership.

Classes for Cal State San Bernardino will be starting soon, they have not started as of Monday, but we did want to get the routes started, start running it, so people can start to understand it is on the road, but we expect to see ridership build immensely over the next 90 days.

- Okay, so we've been focusing on the students that are going to either the, your desert campus out there, or the Cal State San Bernardino out here.

But there are other people that could be taken advantage of this and as you described, Beaumont is one of the, I guess, the transit areas where they can split off and go different directions to other locations.

Tell me, what do you have in your marketing plan or who you trying to go after, or let people know that this is there other than students?

- Oh, well, the entire Coachella Valley community, because there are a lot of destinations, there are people, as you know, in Southern California, you may know most people have to commute for work here, where you live, it's not necessarily anywhere near, where you work, depending on the cost of that location, the community, and then what you do for your jobs.

So, we do have folks that work or have to travel for work that we would like to them to know that the services available to them.

Stopping in the Beaumont area, Beaumont has, and Banning pass area have a transit system, amazing one that serves our community, so there's access there.

Riverside Transit Agency also stops in Beaumont, so there's access to Riverside and directly through their transit system to the Riverside community and that's a vast service.

It provides a lot of different opportunities to circulate in the Riverside County area.

And then moving on into San Bernardino, now we're connecting to rail lines, to other bus systems.

Riverside Transit also stops at that location, so if that route that you want to take is better to get in the San Bernardino Transit Center, you can access them there, or you could access them in Beaumont.

And I think it just increases the mobility for everyone in this community and gives people who live in those other areas access to the Coachella Valley, which we've been wanting to do for almost 10 years.

- Yeah.

- Is to provide this reverse community.

We used to drive or have a route that would go to Riverside directly to the Metrolink station there, but there was no return trip.

So it was just serving people that had business in Riverside or work, or other destinations they needed to get to, but they were basically there until the service in the afternoon came back.

We've learned lessons from that, and we're trying to implement those all in this 10 commuter link to ensure that there's back and forth travel.

There's lots of opportunity to get on a bus and get back.

And that we're doing this reversing back and forth, so people can have access in either direction that they're trying to get to.

- When it comes to the San Bernardino region, does it go directly to Cal State or does it stop at the San Bernardino transit area as well?

- No, it stops directly at the campus.

The campus does have a nice bus stops that were, because there are other transit service, the Omnitrans serves that community as well.

- Right.

- And so, we are stopping at those co-located stops.

So students can get on an Omnitrans bus, they can get on a SunLine bus and go to the transit center.

The benefit of that, it helps all of us, right?

Because we want to move folks, we want folks to have options.

And so they could catch at that stop, Omnitrans bus, that's going to multiple locations, they can catch our bus, that's going directly to the transit center and then turning around and reversing back.

So, one of the beauties of the partners we work with in Riverside Transit and in Omnitrans is really, we all have the same goal and that's to create these choices, multiple modes, multiple ability for people to circulate.

I mean, that's what we do as a business, as we put rubber on the road, right?

And so when we can work together to increase mobility, we're really doing what we want to do and what our mission is for the communities we serve.

- Okay, so they can get on the bus at Cal State San Bernardino, they can ride all the way back to Indio, or they may, there is a stop at the San Bernardino transit there where they could, if that's as far as they're going to go another direction, catch one of the other transportation modalities available.

Is that what you're saying, right?

- Yes, that's what I'm saying.

- Yeah.

- That they could either go to the transit center, stay on the bus and come back to the Coachella Valley.

- Right.

- They could get on the bus, go to the transit center and access Metrolink, or access another service of Omnitrans going into the direction of their home or whatever their job, - Right.

- wherever they need to go next.

But they have multiple opportunities to both catch our system and to catch Omnitrans, to then catch Riverside.

I just think it's just a really good synergy for folks that may need to travel by public transit, to multiple locations.

I mean, many riders have to get from, you know, home, to school, to work, and they need these kinds of ways to quickly move around.

I mean, when we think about what we can do in driving, not necessarily on Southern California roads, but you know, there is a lot of flexibility people need in order to get their day done and what they have as responsibilities.

And so I think this partnership allows for not just Coachella Valley residents to have more flexibility, but everyone that uses all the systems that will be involved in this partnership.

- Right, and like you said, not just the Coachella Valley, but if you have people that are in the Morongo area and want to go to Cal State, this now, they catch it in Beaumont and they can take it all the way over there.

So it really does open it up for many people.

Now, how have you been trying to reach out or has Cal State done their part in trying to reach the students to let them know in the Coachella Valley that this service is now available?

- Well, we're good at that (Lillian laughs) and so as Cal State, and so our students who are connected to their cellphones.

So there are a lot of innovative ways to communicate with students about what we're doing.

Now, that being said, that's probably the easiest population to communicate with (Lillian laughs) just based on social media and we do Instagram.

We routinely have Transit Tuesday where we use Instagram Live to talk about what we're up to and what we're planning, and get feedback from the community and our riders.

But then there's also other populations that may not be connected to social media.

And so we have all kinds of programs and work campaigns and the way that we communicate it's with written materials, it's with media that we purchased, whether it's radio or TV, to talk about what we're doing.

Obviously we have folks that are not in school and people of all ages that want to access service, and so we always have to broaden our message and make sure we're using multiple venues and outlets in order to get the message out.

But the students has been fairly easy since all you have to do is use Instagram (Lillian laughs) or text messages, or other ways of communication to reach them.

- So social media really works for them, that's for sure.

- That's right.

And transit has had to adapt to that.

That hasn't always been the way that we communicate.

My agency, I have some great millennials here who understand the communication channels.

(Lillian chuckles) I'm a boomer, so, you know, I have to learn.

But they understand what content and what format things need to be in order for us to reach the most people, and so we're really lucky that we have, and then working with the college, obviously they understand how to reach their students, which of our all ages, and so not one media works for everybody.

But I think that understanding Instagram and understanding the power of social media has been a really great lesson for me as a CEO and to learn from my staff about how important it is as a way to communicate.

- Yeah, totally.

I mean, I've had to learn from my young colleagues as well, that this is really the way of the world and we have to use it rather than the old traditional ways.

We have to embrace other ways as well.

Now, have you heard back from the campus?

Or have you heard if there is a going to be an audience, therefore, that are gonna give it a try?

- Oh, we know there'll be a captive audience.

And in fact, they moved folks, as I had said before on their own privatized service.

And so, you know, the pandemic has been a slow down the recovery of all things.

And going back to class in person also will be somewhat of a process, which is probably a good way to go.

Everyone needs to feel comfortable, there needs to be options made available to access your education.

But we know that the college plans on in-person study and really starting to make more in-person study, a part of a person's program and so we'll be ready.

It's another reason why we started the route before the campus section - Yeah, that's good.

- went back into session.

Yeah, just to get everyone and others who need transportation options and opportunity to ride the service.

Everyday that we ride it is great for us.

Our operators are very comfortable with the route, we have already tested our equipment extensively, we have brand new buses were running in this service, and so I think that getting it on the road, even before classes start in person was important to do and I'm really proud of the team for putting that together, and getting that on the road starting last, just this Monday.

- Yeah, very good.

Well, in my last couple of minutes with you, I want to ask, as a transit agency and you've been in this world a long time, you had worked in Delaware, you worked in Maryland, you've been doing this transit thing for a long time.

Do you have any new projects brewing?

- Yes, I mean, I think one of the things that the 10 commuter link was born out of is we've redesigned our entire network.

One of the things I say to my employees and they quote it, which I love is, you know, transit has to stop selling what people aren't buying.

People want fast, efficient, well-priced, services that are getting them more they need to go.

No one has time to sit on a bus for four hours to make one trip to work and we need to stop thinking that, that's what riders are willing to do in order to access a ride.

And it's taken us a little while as an industry to do that, but transit is really pivoting on, its thought that I'm gonna run this same line matter, who runs it or rides it.

(Lillian laughs) And I'm gonna run it for a hundred years and that can't be who we are as an industry, if we want to continue to serve our riders, which is our mission and focus.

And so we've launched our own rideshare, we use local taxis to operate that, they've been amazing partners, we regulate taxi.

So it was a great marriage and a great partnership.

We are looking at new services and launching more rideshare.

We'd like to see where rideshare is that second connection, so you don't have to ride two buses anywhere.

- Right, right.

- You ride one bus and use something more flexible and quicker, for those secondary trips that you need to make to actually get to your destination or get back home.

I think that, you know, we're always looking at, you know, walk, scooter, bike, ped, you know, bus, and other more flexible services as being sort of an umbrella of what we need to provide an options 'cause not everything works for any community.

I mean, SunLine services nine cities in the unincorporated Riverside County.

Every one of those cities has a different approach and a different complexion on the way they need rides.

And so we have to be very flexible that way and I think that's the new form of transit that folks are gonna see.

We recognize that we have to bring what people want.

And in order for people to ride, it has to be something that serves their needs.

- Yeah, I love that you're talking about options because, and I love your saying that we have to stop selling what people aren't buying.

I mean, that is such, that says it all in a nutshell.

Lauren, thank you so much for your time.

I'm excited about the project, I hope that students will take advantage of it and the community will take advantage of it.

Thank you so much, it's been great speaking with you.

- Thank you so much for the opportunity today.

I really appreciate it.

- [Narrator] This program was originally produced for 91.9 KVCR Radio.

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