Fairfax County is signing a $200 million contract with a new operator of its extensive Fairfax Connector bus service.
MV Contract Transportation of Fairfield, Calif., beat out two other bidders, including the current contractor — Veolia Transportation — to win the mammoth five-year contract, officials said Monday.
The agreement comes as Fairfax County is taking over bus routes from Metro and potentially cutting its own service to accommodate a $648 million shortfall in the fiscal 2010 budget.
The company will take over all three of the Connector system’s divisions, including lines in western Fairfax County that the Connector is absorbing from the more expensive Metro service, said Fairfax County Department of Transportation spokeswoman Beth Francis.
“This has been a long time coming … it is something that we have been waiting for and anxiously looking forward to,” said Sully District Supervisor Michael Frey at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. “In addition to providing lower-cost service, it will, I believe, provide much more responsive service.”
Fairfax Connector stands to lose 24 percent of its county funding under the proposed cuts, according to county budget documents. That includes a loss of about 75,000 hours of service, including cuts to routes across the county.
The cuts are unpopular with riders, who are among the many groups protesting the broad spending reductions included in County Executive Anthony Griffin’s proposed budget for the year beginning in July. The board was poised Monday night to hold the first in a handful of public hearings on the budget, and the meeting was expected to drag long into the evening.
The Board of Supervisors also is considering an increase in the property tax rate, a bevy of new fees and a revived $33 car tax.
