March

7, 2012 David Bernhardt Commissioner, Department of Transportation 16 State House Station Augusta, Maine 04333 Dear Commissioner Bernhardt: As GoMaine vanpool riders, we are writing you to request an immediate meeting to discuss how together we might save the vanpool program. We believe this can be accomplished without additional state support. We were very dismayed and stunned by your letter last week, informing us that you planned to discontinue the program in two short months due to uncertain funding in the long term to support van replacement. We were further dismayed that your comprehensive evaluation failed to include input from the users of the service. We are sure you regret this oversight and hope you agree it should be rectified. Further, we are confident, our inclusion offers a path to saving a program that has been well run, a service to Maine citizens, and of value as a piece of our states transportation, environmental, and energy policy. Since we received your letter, van riders have been exploring the costs of switching to the out-of-state van provider as you suggested, as well as reviewing your Departments own figures as to what it would cost to keep the van pool program sustainable. What we have discovered thus far: That switching to the out-of-state vanpool operator could as much as double our van costs; That maintaining the vanpool program as part of GoMaine would be considerably less for riders, even if we picked up 100% of the costs for running the program (including paying for replacement vans). Consequently, what we would like to discuss with you at our meeting is the following: 1. That the GoMaine program continue as is for the next 12 months while we explore together how the vanpool program can become sustainable with or without additional state funding. Since your February 24th letter suggests that any issues with continuing the program are long-term rather than short- term, the current two-month cut-off on May 1 seems unnecessary and arbitrary.

2. That we use the next twelve months to: Create a task force to explore other options including programs offered in other states, and external funding sources that might be used to help replace vans and thus underwrite the costs of continuing the program. Such a task force should include representatives of the DOT, riders of GoMaine, interested members of the Legislature's Transportation Committee, staff from Maines congressional delegation, the Maine Turnpike Authority, the Council of Governments, as well as others who might have access to external funding sources or good ideas on how to proceed. Survey riders on possible proposals and costs, and determine what they might be willing to pay to keep the program going. Develop and review proposals for keeping the GoMaine program going. We are already developing proposals on how we might do that.

We would urge DOT to gather input from riders and to explore all the various options. The commuter program has existed in one form or another for more than 30 years and it seems like riders are being left to figure out how to solve this problem on our own. We are confident that the GoMaine vanpool program can keep going in a sustainable manner, and we are convinced that it should be kept going. We look forward to meeting with you as soon as possible. Thank you.