The Denton County Transportation Authority may see a negative net income in the future if it doesn’t begin to lower operating costs.
Jane Filarowicz, senior manager of budget and grants, told the DCTA Board of Directors during last Thursday’s meeting that the transit agency could see a negative net income in 2035 and 2036.
Net income is the amount of money remaining after subtracting expenses from total revenue or sales. Negative net income means a company has incurred more expenses than its revenue — resulting in a loss.
This was part of the long-range financial plan of the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget presented by Filarowicz.
Filarowicz told the board that inflation and expenses had led the agency to this point.
“Under 2035 and 2036, you see that we started to go negative on net income,” Filarowicz told the board. “That’s another reason why we have to be very conservative on what we’re doing today to be sure that we don’t go negative in the future.”
DCTA CEO Paul Cristina said the agency needs to do business differently to avoid a potential negative net income. That means lowering operating costs, getting more partnerships with other cities and getting more riders through the University of North Texas.
“Doing business differently means lowering operating costs on things like the intermediate service plan and paying for one service, the best service, on the right geography,” Cristina told the board. “So that’s how we work on the cost side. On the revenue side, we work on it through opportunities like the UNT contract, the addition of member cities into the future and all that sort of thing.
“These ideas that we’ve had about those are things that we ought to be doing, this long-range financial plan tells us these are things we have to be doing.”
As reported by the Denton Record-Chronicle, DCTA will have bus frequency changes and add more bus stops in Denton starting on Aug. 19 as part of the agency’s intermediate service plan.”
In fiscal year 2023, ridership for the connect bus in Denton rebounded dramatically to 133,170, showing a 77% increase from the previous year’s total, according to a DCTA press release. This upward trend continues into this year with ridership further growing an additional 70% through June.
With more stops serving more neighborhoods, buses will run every 20 minutes from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays.
According to DCTA, the 20-minute frequency will make it easier for commuters to connect with the A-train and the University of North Texas campus shuttle buses.
The agency will also shift GoZone Denton drivers to Lewisville and Highland Village per the changes.
The board will again discuss the budget during next month’s Board of Directors meeting. The 2025 fiscal year will begin in October.