The Regional Fleet Assessment Project      

                                Final Report Now available!  New!          Draft schedule!  New!

 

BSD has received funding from Moving on Sustainable Transportation to conduct what is called “A Regional Fleet Assessment”, in which we will identify the potential, conduct consultations, prepare service options and route options as well as cost projection on the topic of the potential for a transit link to five municipalities near Bathurst where many of the citizens of these Municipalities work and come for appointments to the City of Bathurst. Family and Community Services have expressed a great interest in us extending future bus services to these areas.

Two meetings were held one with the Mayor’s Forum and one with representative of the various Municipalities to introduce the Transit Link idea to them and to gain insight as to their interest and support for this idea.

We have received a letter of unanimous support from the Mayor’s Forum from all five Municipalities along route 134 (which is a straight line route) near Bathurst for this initiative. 

The Regional Fleet Assessment Project begins May 1, 2006 and will be completed March 31, 2007.

a. Project Description (including brief justification for project)

The City of Bathurst and Bathurst Sustainable Development are in the process of conducting a transit test of public transit services within the City. The surrounding Municipalities of Beresford, Petite- Rocher, Petite- Rocher Sud and Petit Rocher du Nord, Pointe- Vert, Nigadoo, and Belledune (all within a 30 minute radius of Bathurst along route #134) have expressed interest in supporting BSD conducting a feasibility study on the potential to establish a Regional Fleet transit service which would connect these communities with the City of Bathurst transit system. Total population for these combined Municipalities is approximately 12,000. Average fuel cots to travel to and from the City range between $40 per round trip to $10 per round trip. The majority of the residents of these communities commute to the City of Bathurst daily for work, shopping and appointments.

BSD will conduct all consultations; prepare all project materials in both official languages. Drawing on the skills and resources of the Bathurst transit drivers, we will time and test the Regional Fleet options. 

Before launching a Regional Fleet it is necessary for us to have as much credible data and information about our target user groups as possible, critical information pertaining to the financial operations of the service, population size, leasing options of the buses and energy options for the buses (diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, electric, and hybrids) and insurance requirements. We also need to establish a proposed bus route, location of bus stops, hours of operation, necessary signage, and schedules and the requirements and laws of all Provincial, Federal and Municipal transportation policies. We need to identify cooperating partners who may already have a suitable “bus stop” designed into their property and who are willing to provide this service to the Regional Fleet. We need to explore the various methods of operating the Regional Fleet. We will also be assessing the financial sustainability of the system based on the “real time” costs being incurred by the Bathurst transit service during their test project. A staggered rider fare, based on distance traveled, may be required.

Working closely with the regional planning department and Municipalities, we will assess the proposed bus route to identify needs, changes, and requirements to comply with all transportation codes and land use, the placement of bus stops and signage.  We need to survey, speak to and receive input from our residents and all target user groups to identify the areas of the city where demand is highest, what are the demographics of our users and what their accessibility needs are. Lastly, we need to assess what barriers may exist to the service succeeding and how can we over come these. We will obtain this information from surveys that will be conducted during presentations/ information sharing sessions with all identified user groups on the subject of this proposed initiative.

b.     Project Goals

We are now registering groups who would you like for us to conduct a consultation with your local group/ community. Please contact us to arrange a suitable time and date!

Thank-you !

Brenda Kelley, Community Development Coordinator for Bathurst Sustainable Development (BSD),  285 St. Patrick Street, Bathurst, NB, E2A1C9 Tel: 1-506-548-2106  Fax: 1-506-545-7838  www.bathurstsustainabledevelopment.com