Whether you’re simply catching a ride on a bus or managing the entire public transit system, you’ve got to know where you’re going.
That’s the goal of a short-to-medium range strategic planning process being undertaken by Mountain Line Transit Authority.
Executive Director Dave Bruffy explained that planning and engineering firm HDR is finishing up a $150,000 project focused on taking stock of Mountain Line’s current services and facilities and looking at what both might look like in three-to-five years based on projected growth patterns in and around the greater Morgantown area.
The study is also looking at how any needed expansions might be funded.
This is particularly helpful, Bruffy said, now that the dust has settled from the forced relocation of Mountain Line’s depot. The transit authority was given months to vacate its Garrett Street depot and reconfigure its services in late 2017 due to a $4 million riverfront overhaul project taken up by the city of Morgantown.
All bus service now runs through Mountain Line’s Westover hub.
“It wasn’t something we’d planned for. We had to do it on the fly. Once we got that system in place and we let it run for 12-18 months to see how it was performing, we thought it would be a good idea to bring somebody in to take a look at what we had done and help us assess and evaluate how well we’re providing service and give us some thoughts about how we might move forward and improve the service,” Bruffy said.
Along with the main scope of the study, a $50,000 federal Accelerating Innovative Mobility Grant, is being utilized to study the feasibility of integrating payment methods for Mountain Line, the Morgantown Parking Authority and WVU’s transit and parking facilities.
“So that would be coming up with a single, contactless payment system for all three. Whether that’s something like an app or an ID card, we’d like to see that integration,” Bruffy said.
The study is expected to finish up this fall, though the payment integration effort will likely continue into 2021.
Bruffy said anyone interested in the findings of the study should watch busride.org or plantogether.org for additional information.
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