West Metro Transit Service, Contract 25P218

title West Metro Transit Service, Contract 25P218 memo District(s), member(s): All Policy/legal reference: FM 14-2 - Expenditures for the Procurement of Goods, Services, and Real Estate Policy Staff prepared/presented: Charles Carlson, Executive Director MTS, Gerri Sutton, Director, Director Contracted Transit Services, John Harper, Manager, Contracted Transit Services, Bruce Dreier, Project Administrator Division/department: Metropolitan Transportation Services (MTS) body Proposed Action That the Metropolitan Council authorize the Regional Administrator to negotiate and execute contract 25P218 with Transdev Inc. for regular route transit in the West Metro Transit Service contract in an amount not to exceed $76,488,300. Background Metropolitan Transportation Services provides regular route transit service under contract with private companies. These services are competitively procured using a series of multi-year contracts which allows the opportunity for vendors to propose and operate transit service on behalf of the Council. This specific contract package includes service primarily in the west metro. A Request for Proposals was issued on December 4, 2025. A pre-proposal meeting was hosted by Council staff on January 5, 2026, that outlined the solicitation requirements, discussed project specifications, and responded to plan holder inquiries. There were twelve registered plan holders including six prime proposers, one supplier, one consultant, one plan room and three others. On January 20, 2026, the Council received two proposals to be evaluated for award consideration and used proposer quality, qualifications, experience, and price as the evaluation factors. An evaluation panel consisting of staff from Metropolitan Transportation Services and Metro Transit evaluated the proposals using the following criteria: proposal quality, proposer's qualifications and experience, proposer's capabilities and ability to deliver the service, and proposal price. The evaluation panel reached consensus that the proposal submitted by Transdev North America is advantageous to the Council and recommend for award. The proposal and contract structure allow the Council to adjust service during the term using pre-established rates. The value of the base service level is approximately $66.3M and the requested contract value not to exceed $76.5M allows for revenue hour increases of up to 20%.to account for growth in service Rationale The execution of a professional service contract exceeding $2,000,000 requires Council approval. Thrive Lens On February 12, 2025, the Council adopted Imagine 2050, which builds on policy direction in Thrive MSP 2040. Under the Thrive lens, this item advances several key outcomes. This contract supports the Thrive outcome of Prosperity by providing transit service in areas of the region that are currently unserved, increasing the average number of jobs accessible by transit. It also advances the outcome of Equity by connecting additional residents to opportunities. In addition, it furthers Financial Stewardship offering a lower cost solution for a lower productivity transit service. Funding Funding for this service is included in the annual operating budget. Small Business Inclusion Due to the requirements of the Interim Final Rule issued by the USDOT on October 3, 2025, no DBE goal was assigned to this project.