CTS Serves More than Two Million
Posted Date: 7/7/2009 9:00 AM
Charlottesville Transit Service (CTS) is announcing a record number of passengers boarding for the 2009 fiscal year, which ended June 30.
For the first time ever, CTS has had more than two million passengers board its buses in a single year (from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009). The total of 2,012,462 represents an 18% increase in boardings over the previous year.
The newest CTS numbers confirm that use of transit in Charlottesville continues to be on the rise. In the last five years, CTS passenger boardings have increased by more than 50% -- a total increase of more than 730,000.
Increased ridership on new routes CTS introduced in August 2008 tell part of the CTS success story. On the five new routes alone -- Route 3 to Belmont, Route 5 night service from Barracks Road Shopping Center to Walmart, Route 6 to Ridge Street and UVA Hospital, Route 8 to Barracks Road and Seminole Square, and Route 9 to Charlottesville High School – ridership increased by more than 40 percent.
UVA ridership tells another part of the story. Under a pre-paid arrangement between CTS and the University of Virginia, UVA photo IDs of students, faculty, and staff are accepted as fare on all CTS buses. In the 2009 fiscal year, UVA passenger boardings exceeded 296,000 – representing 40% growth over 2008 totals.
To help serve this increased passenger base and promote future ridership growth, CTS plans to play an important role in a greener future for Charlottesville. In 2010, in addition to beginning to operate hybrid buses, a new green maintenance and operations facility will upgrade CTS’ capabilities, permit current services to be provided more efficiently, and position CTS to make the transition to become a regional public transportation provider.
Daily Press Article:
The purchase of the hybrids — which, for now, will be two “trolley”-style buses is possible because of $1.3 million in federal economic stimulus funds that CTS will receive in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Nearly $1.2 million of the capital will be spent on the hybrids. The rest of the money will be spent on items such as BusFinders, which show how far a bus is away from a particular stop, other bus stop amenities, four passenger shelters and spare parts.
The buses cost considerably more than what CTS spends now on its buses, which cost around $350,000 each. Hybrids go for roughly $600,000 each, Watterson said, but officials say the upfront costs would be made up from the buses’ drop in fuel consumption.
The buses that CTS has now have fuel capacities ranging from 50 to 120 gallons. The smallest and largest buses use about 26,584 and 133,748 gallons of fuel per year, respectively.
Richmond BizSense Interviews Richmond’s GRTC Chief, John M Lewis Jr. about future for Richmond.
www.richmondbizsense.com/2009/04/13/qa-grtc-chief-on-a-mission