Hampton could get big bus
Published Thursday August 21st, 2008
Transit Commission to seek funding for two articulated buses for Hampton Express
Erin Dwyer
For the Telegraph-Journal
HAMPTON - The Saint John Transit Commission is seeking federal funding to purchase a pair of articulated buses for the Hampton Express - the bus service that runs between the town and the city.
If the commission's efforts are successful, Hampton will be the first municipality in New Brunswick to use these type of buses, which cost about $650,000 each.
Town council, at a special meeting this week, passed a motion providing a five-year commitment for the Comex commuter bus service and agreed to shoulder the operating costs for the transit service to its town. Until now, the town had only provided the maintenance costs for the shelters and its park and ride.
The motion - required to make the application for the federal funding - makes Hampton the first of the four participating municipalities to extend its agreement, which would have expired on Dec. 31. For the first 15 months of the service, the City of Saint John and the Saint John Transit Commission were footing the bill for the transit operating costs.
"To me, it's quite successful," Mayor Ken Chorley said in an interview. "I don't think we will ever cancel it."
Introduced last September, the Comex service is a morning and after-work transportation program serving Saint John's outlying suburbs of Grand Bay-Westfield, Rothesay, Quispamsis and Hampton. It was designed to remove 350 vehicles from the city's uptown and eliminate the need for another $10-million parking garage in the uptown in the next five to 10 years.
But not even a year into the service, an extra run and a second bus on some runs were added to the Hampton Express to accommodate the growing number of passengers. About 100 people use the service to and from Hampton on weekdays, equalling about 200 seats filled each day, said Frank McCarey, the general manager of the transit commission.
"Everyone is very pleased with the response in Hampton," he said.
To provide the service to the town, it costs about $180,000 a year, McCarey said. But the service will break even when it can fill 280 seats a day - in other words, attract another 40 people to take the bus regularly. Passengers pay $3 per trip or $89 for a monthly pass.
"We are very close to a break-even point," McCarey said in an interview, a fact he emphasized during his presentation to town council this week.
The transit commission hopes to reach that goal with the addition of the two articulated buses, which can accommodate 60 passengers. Existing buses seat 43. By adding these tandem buses that are flexible in the middle, the Hampton Express can also reduce costs by not having to send a second bus on its more popular runs, McCarey said.
In addition, the five-year commitment from Hampton might be enough for some companies to provide bus passes to their employees living in the town. McCarey said the Irving group has expressed interest in such a plan to reduce the number of parking spaces it needs uptown, but was waiting to see if the outlying communities would extend the service beyond Dec. 31.
"If that comes to fruition, that would bring the numbers up," McCarey said.
He said the transit commission has been in discussions with the other outlying communities and expects that Rothesay, Quispamsis and Grand Bay-Westfield will also extend their service beyond Dec. 31. But it needed a commitment from Hampton immediately in order to apply for the federal funding from the public transit capital trust, money that Ottawa gave to the province to support public transportation. The fund holds $2 million to support ideas promoting rural to urban public transit. The deadline for applications is Sept. 1.
McCarey said the town council in Hampton was very supportive of the service.
"They were in favour and very enlightened about the approach to the whole thing," he said. "They were very committed to seeing it going ahead."
Recently, the town conducted a survey about the service to see who was using it and seek suggestions or comments. Nearly 70 people responded.
"All of them were very positive," the mayor said. "They liked the drivers, they liked the routes and they liked the times."
The Hampton Express offers four morning runs from Hampton to King's Square: 6:15 a.m., 7:10 a.m., 7:35 a.m. and 8:55 a.m. The 7:10 a.m. bus now heads to the Saint John Regional Hospital and the UNBSJ campus after stopping at King's Square, while the 8:55 a.m. bus stops at McAllister Place before heading to King's Square. In the afternoon and evening, the service offers four runs from King's Square to Hampton: 3:50 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 5:10 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
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