CONNDOT
Proposed changes for a rapid O bus route.
A CT Transit ride from New Haven to Milford’s Post Mall could take 11 minutes less than it does now under a plan contained in a draft state study — but it will take new buses, additional technology and nearly $5.3 million to get it done.
The state Department of Transportation (DOT) has drawn up the “BRT” (Bus Rapid Transit) plan, and is now seeking input and looking for the money.
The proposed BRT route would speed up some rides on the O line.
The proposed New Haven-Milford BRT is contained in the most recent draft of a feasibility study being conducted for the state by the Parsons Brinckerhoff firm, which is looking at how to make buses run faster along Route 1. The study, nearing completion, is looking at five geographic portions of the Route 1 corridor: Stamford to Port Chester, Stamford to Norwalk, Norwalk to Bridgeport, Bridgeport to Milford and Milford to New Haven. It calls the O bus segment “the best opportunity” for successfully introducing BRT along Route 1.
Click here to read the full draft.
The O route plan calls for eight new special bus stops in New Haven, some with bike racks and other features, which is estimated in the new DOT report to cost about $130,000. But it does not call for any traffic signal improvements because the city is already making them. The Milford stops would need the least amount of work, according to the report, because many of the existing stops would be used though some sidewalk improvements would need to be made.
The addition of new bus stops, sidewalk improvements, new buses and traffic signal priority emitters throughout the proposed more direct route, bumps the entire cost to nearly $5.3 million, according to the report.
State DOT Transit Administrator Michael Sanders said unlike the New Britain-to-Hartrord CTfastrak, which has a dedicated track, the proposed rapid transit O Route would be “on street” bus rapid transit, which is common in a lot of cities. The New Haven-to-CT Post Mall leg could be the first of a broader plan to expedite bus transit to New York City. Sanders said consultants recommended doing the New Haven-Milford leg first because “it has the most bang for the buck.”
“We’re looking at special bus stops, where it [a bus] can tell the signal to do early green” to catch up, he said. “More on on-street amenities and improvements… It would be more of a limited stop [concept]. Maybe one third or one quarter the number of stops.”
Transit signal priority, or “TSP” transmitters would communicate with traffic signals to “reduce delays and improve on-time performance,” by possibly allowing the signal to turn green when a BRT bus is approaching an intersection.
Sanders said that it’s still early in the process and the DOT’s technical advisory group, which has been expanded to include the impacted municipalities, gets to comment on the study and make suggestions, so people shouldn’t get their hopes up that BRT is coming anytime soon.
“When the advisory committee signs off, we sign off on it, then we ‘take it upstairs’,” he said. “What we want to do next by way of design, planning, schedule for implementation, and obviously a cost estimate. There is no money sitting around for this. That’s not the way we work.”
He said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants a 43 percent increase in ridership over the next few years, and could put some money into it. But given that the state is facing a $1.5 billion deficit this might not be the year for significant investments in mass transit.
“It’s certainly not for a couple of years,” he said of any bus rapid transit route. “But it’s hard to project in this tough budget year. There may even be technical issues… [For example] if the plan says to locate a stop here, and then you get out there and you find there’s no sidewalk.”
City transit chief Doug Hausladen brought news of the BRT plan to a meeting last week of New Haven’s Environmental Advisory Council after receiving a briefing from the DOT on the BRT plan.
Hausladen said hat he had been aware that BRTs along this corridor, were in the offing, he had no idea that a BRT linking New Haven to points along the Boston Post Road west toward West Haven and Orange was in the offing.
The features of the BRT would include transit signal priorities, specialized vehicles, and a service that could “get you to Orange in 20 minutes,” he reported.
Today, the O Route has 69 possible stops between New Haven and Milford — though the average number of actual stops is between 18 and 24, depending on the direction and time of the day, according to the report.
But a BRT route could cut the number of stops to almost half the number of possible stops, and establish a more direct route between the New Haven Green and the CT Post Mall, cutting the travel time from an average of 44 minutes to an average 33.
Hausladen suggested stops might include Church Street South at Columbus Avenue, some location in the medical district, and the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, and the Veterans Administration facility in West Haven.
“We were initially not [even] in the study. Now we’re the focal point,” he said.
“Thanks to you,” he concluded, with a nod to the members of the Environmental Advisory Council.
This is great. I was just discussing last night some of the ups and downs of CT Transit, and one of the things people talked about is how difficult it is to get the bus to the Milford mall, how time-consuming it is if you don't get the 55 Express. As I consider going car-less entirely in the future, it's good to know that there are more options for rapid transit developing.