Centralizing Dispatch Services in a Primarily Rural Alaskan Borough

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About the Borough

The Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough is located in south-central Alaska just north of Anchorage with a total area of 25,258 square miles, roughly the size of West Virginia, and an estimated population of just over 111,000. Mat-Su is second only to the Municipality of Anchorage in total population and continues to be one of the only areas in the state experiencing steady growth, with the Borough accounting for over 78% of Alaska’s Census-measured population growth between 2010 and 2020.

As a second-class borough, the state laws define Mat-Su’s powers, duties, and functions. Mat-Su has limited powers, no official Transportation Organization, and does not provide transit services. Those services are provided by several non-profit organizations in the most populated areas of the Mat-Su. Four of the primary providers have been working to connect their transportation service routes and centralize the dispatch services to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Learn more about the local government in Alaska here. 

About Transportation in the Borough

For this project, four transit providers participated in the IMI Central Dispatch Pilot project. 

Those providers are:

1. Valley Transit was originally established by a citizen, now elected official, who purchased used buses in an auction and decided to start a commuter bus service between the Mat-Su and Anchorage. Valley Transit merged with another non-profit provider and now offers fixed route and on-demand services. The largest of our providers, Valley Transit was designated as the lead provider for this project.        

2. Sunshine Transit was started by the Sunshine Health Center as a way of getting their patients to the clinic. They now provide flag stops and on-demand services from the Talkeetna area down to Willow or Wasilla as needed. 

3. Chickaloon Area Transit is our Tribal Transit provider, started by the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, and provides rides between Sutton and Palmer.

4. Mat-Su Senior Services runs several senior housing complexes and provides door-through-door transit services to seniors. 

Sunshine, Chickaloon, and Mat-Su Seniors are all relatively small transit agencies with limited staffing. Their staff manages the office, runs the dispatch side, and are also the drivers. In addition to these four, several other organizations around the Borough provide or coordinate rides for people, usually scheduled by a case manager.

Implementing Centralized Mobility Management Software

Project Background

The idea of a central dispatch for our transit providers came out of discussions with local non-profit organizations and foundations during the development of the Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan 2018-2022. 

The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) is a local organization that is part owner of our local hospital and uses that funding to provide grants and reports on a number of health-related topics. The Borough and MSHF worked with local agencies to develop the Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan 2018-2022. One of the primary recommendations of that plan was to centralize dispatch services for transit providers to improve the customer experience. The MSHF, using the goals and recommendations of the plan, along with the Community Health Needs Assessment, determined that the central dispatch idea was a key factor in increasing transportation services and opportunities that would lead to a healthier community.

In March 2019, the MSHF convened the Mat-Su Transportation Stakeholder Group to: 1) hear from a panel of five Mat-Su residents representing seniors, low-income, and people with disabilities about the importance and urgency of improving Mat-Su’s transportation system; 2) revisit the recommendations to confirm that a central dispatch system is the best first step to advancing the plan; and 3) identify a small working group to help build a business plan for a pilot central dispatch project.

Just over a year later, in April 2019, the Central Dispatch Pilot Project Working Group was formed out of those that attended the Mat-Su Transportation Stakeholders’ Group meeting. They held their initial meeting to 1) align on a high-level overview of the project and process; 2) develop a group charter; 3) envision the ideal centralized dispatch system for Mat-Su citizens; 4) identify the considerations to make the project a win-win for both riders and providers; 5) identify data needed for decision-making. 

Between May and July 2019, the group met monthly, established a timeline and software needs, reviewed or received demonstrations on three software systems, and formed the Transit Providers Working Group. The Transit Providers working group began meeting monthly in July 2019 and is still meeting monthly. The large working group now meets quarterly for updates and participates in beta testing.

Receiving the IMI Grant

With the work and effort put into the project at that point, including the research into potential grant sources and the development and signing of a Shared Operating Agreement and the Data Sharing Agreement, the group determined that the FTA IMI grant was the perfect fit for the project and the Mat-Su Borough agreed to submit the grant application and the Health Foundation offered up $100,000 to meet the local match requirements for the application.

The Central Dispatch: One Call, One Click Transit Pilot project was about purchasing commercial “software as a service” to centralize dispatch, fleet management, call-taking, and mobility payment integration functions for multiple transportation provider types using a single online platform. This would provide a one-call/one-click solution for riders, assign trips to the lowest-cost, eligible provider from the pool of available providers, and allow riders flexible payment options to account for the needs of unbanked riders and riders without mobile technology access/proficiency (e.g. online passenger portal, cash option, delegate module for caregivers to handle trip booking). The goals were to 1) enhance the partnership between public transit providers and human services providers in the Mat-Su Borough; 2) meet the needs of our diverse riders; 3) maximize service efficiency and effectiveness; and 3) ensure a quality experience for riders. 

The grant application outlined the project partners, who are still part of the process and attending either monthly or quarterly meetings. These partners included:

1. Transit Provider Partners – Those agencies that would secure and utilize the software: a) Valley Transit, Dispatch Center; b) Sunshine Transit; c) Mat-Su Senior Services; and d) Chickaloon Transit.
2. Funding Partners – Those agencies that would secure grant funding or provide match funding: a) Mat-Su Borough, FTA Grant; and b) Mat-Su Health Foundation: local match 
3. Transit Rider Partners – Beta Testers – this list included eight non-profits, as well as the Regional Medical Center and the School Districts Families in Transition.

The combined service areas of the providers and partners cover the area shown in the image below. This area does not include the offshoots to Petersville and Point MacKenzie, stretching roughly 300 road miles from the northern border of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough through our “Core Area” to the remote community of Louise, Susitna Tyone, with a drive time of around 6 hours.

The Borough received notice of the FTA IMI grant award in the amount of $231,191.00 with a local match of $100,000.

A Learning Experience with Challenges and Opportunities for All Involved

Having reviewed several software demonstrations and quotes in the months preceding the grant application and eventual award, the provider’s group had determined that TripSpark would be the software solution secured for this project. Agreements between the Mat-Su Borough and the providers were executed, starting with Valley Transit, who then secured the contract with TripSpark, then installation of and training on the various modules began, all done remotely due to the COVID-19 Pandemic that had most businesses locked down or working from home, and travel was out of the question.

From the time of the grant award through March 2023, there have been unforeseen setbacks that began with a worldwide pandemic. Between 2020 and 2023, the Mat-Su Borough has seen a number of natural disasters ranging from floods to fires, blizzards to windstorms, and earthquakes. These natural disasters resulted in road closures, damaged buildings, and staff shortages, all of which meant delays to most Borough projects.

Lessons Learned for Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Throughout this project, the lessons learned by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, were on topics that generally staff knew should be priorities of Borough Administration. Things like:

1. The Borough’s involvement in transit services needs to change, to increase on pace with our population increase.
2. The Borough’s population growth has triggered some large federal requirements, such as the pending MPO designation, that will impact transit services by, and funding for, our local non-profits providers, and we will need to develop systems and processes to ensure this change does not result in negative impacts.
3. The Borough and City of Wasilla, in coordination with the cities of Houston, Palmer, and Wasilla, need to complete the design and construction of the Wasilla Multi-Modal Depot, with a dispatch center to facilitate a central dispatch location for all transit providers.
4. The lack of internet access in parts of the borough needs to be addressed, and services expanded for the outlying areas to eliminate the dead zones.

Lessons Learned for Transit Providers

1. The providers offer different services, client bases, billing processes, and funding sources.
2. Because of the agencies’ operational differences, Novus (TripSpark’s software platform) did not have a way for providers to share riders easily. 

The Opportunities

While there were several issues and difficulties throughout this project, there were also some opportunities. 

These include:

1. The opportunity for Borough staff to not only learn about transit services in the Borough but also start developing material to assist in educating our elected officials and citizens on what those transit services are and how they find them;
2. The opportunity for the local government to work closely with a local funding organization and non-profit organizations providing a variety of services to our citizens. Those connections will grow and expand as the population increases, along with the need for additional collaborations.
3. The opportunity to shine a light on the great work being done by our transit providers and other local non-profits, from a health foundation that understands the connection between transit and transportation issues and a healthy community; to how one man on a whim, purchased busses at an auction and started a Transit Service that is now one of the largest in the borough. The dedication and commitment of the transit providers, and all the non-profit agencies that stepped up to help, reinforces the knowledge that there are a lot of good people doing the best they can to help others in our community.

The One Call, One Click Central Dispatch Service that Wasn’t 

While the overall project is not yet completed, at this point, the primary lesson learned was that no matter the amount of research and demonstrations invested, a software product may not work for everyone.  The pilot project would have been an overwhelming success if a number of things had been done to ensure that the selected software could be used for all our providers in both rural and urban settings.

Through the implementation of TripSpark’s Novus, Drivermate, and Notification’s module, it was discovered that TripSpark was more urban-focused than rural-focused. It also requires more training and regular use to become proficient in the technology. The following items were found as limitations within TripSpark:

• It required one set of primary defaults that all providers would have to use. Some of these defaults were not set up for a rural environment, like the speed parameter requiring one average speed for all providers (Valley Transit and Mat-Su Senior Services have an average in-town speed of 25 MPH while Sunshine Transit and Chickaloon Area Transit System have an average of 65 MPH due to the length of their trips). 
• TripSpark was unable to accommodate more flexible transit options, such as a flagstop service rather than just a fixed route or demand-response service. 
• TripSpark was overly technical and required an extensive implementation and training period for three out of the four providers. The Providers noted that the training was complicated and it would be difficult for them to train additional staff to use the system, that if they weren’t using it daily, they would not retain the knowledge, and that they felt that it would take a dedicated staff person to just work in TripSpark. 

Centralized Dispatch without Centralized Dispatch

By January 2023, three of the four providers had reached the conclusion that TripSpark would not work for them. Sunshine Transit secured Trip Master software, Mat-Su Senior Services returned to Route Box, and Chickaloon Area Transit is reviewing both Trip Master and Route Box to see if one of those options will work for them as better and easier than TripSpark. Valley Transit is staying with TripSpark, and is in beta testing now, and planning for the public launch of the services. 

With three dispatch systems that currently do not talk to each other, the need for centralized services is still a priority and how that would be accomplished was discussed in great length. The group is currently exploring alternative options, including the option of partnering with Connect Mat-Su, a service established by MSHF to connect people with the services they are in need of. The hope is that the staff at Connect Mat-Su will be able to direct callers to the providers to schedule their connecting rides, as needed. The information will also be shared on their website and on the borough transparency website along with the data collected by each provider.

The Borough has provided funding to the City of Wasilla to secure land for the Wasilla Multi-Modal depot, as one of the first steps in developing a true central dispatch service. In addition, the Borough has recently secured a contractor to develop the first Matanuska-Susitna Borough Transit Plan, and has completed a draft of the Coordinated Human Services Plan update. These items, paired with the work being done for the startup of the MPO, and this grant project, have brought the needs of our transit providers into the light and the Borough will continue to work closely with the MSHF and our non-profit organizations to increase transit opportunities for our growing population.

For more information, please contact Pamela Graham, Grants Coordinator, at pamela.graham@matsugov.us.