It's not cheap to keep the wheels of the buses going around in Thousand Oaks.

The City Council voted on March 10 to pay $2 million this year to a transportation company to operate city buses and DialARide. That's a $382,000 increase in the city's 2008-09 budget, which will come from transportation fund retained earnings, according to Mark Watkins, public works director.

The three-year contract with Northern California-based MV Transportation Inc. comes with a $2,500-a-month lease for office space for the company at the Thousand Oaks Transportation Center on Rancho Road.

MV Transportation Inc., which has been operating the city's transportation services since 2003, has promised to improve customer service for the fourroute bus service and DialA-Ride.

The fourroute service operates Monday through Friday, serving about 680 passengers a day, a 46 percent increase since 2003, Watkins reported.

DialARide provides doortodoor service for seniors and disabled passengers seven days a week. It served about 5,900 per month in 2008 with 14 vehicles.

Thousand Oaks Transportation began in 1981 as a threebus system. In 1995 the city converted its fleet to buses that burn compressed natural gas. In 2008, the buses were replaced with four low-floor natural gas buses to make getting on the bus easier.

To make sure service is high, MV Transportation is giving the city an unconditional satisfaction guarantee. If it isn't happy with the service, the city will be allowed to terminate the agreement and MV Transportation will refund profits for the 12 months prior. The company also promised to maintain a monthly Dial-A-Ride rate of 2.31 passengers per hour.

A maximum of 10 percent of buses will be allowed to be more than five minutes late per quarter.

A consumer advocate will work with disabled and senior passengers to keep services at a high level.

A minimum of 118 hours of formal training will be required for new drivers.

Secret riders will be used to provide unbiased customer service reports.