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ECAT Announces Route Changes Including Decreased Service For North Escambia
March 27, 2010
Escambia County Area Transit (ECAT) has posted proposed route changes to their web site on Friday. As NorthEscambia.com first reported earlier this month, the ECAT route that serves North Escambia will be cut back if proposed changes in the county’s public transportation routes are made.
The Saturday transit bus that serves Century, Molino and Cantonment would be eliminated due to low ridership if the plan presented to the Escambia County by ECAT is approved. The route would also no longer service the “Park-n-Ride” lot at the old Winn Dixie in Cantonment.
The “Route 60″ bus makes three weekday trips with stops between Century and the ECAT transfer center where it allows riders to connect to the rest of the ECAT network. It currently makes the run twice on Saturdays.
Most of the proposed changes across the county are simple route changes or service additions, with just a few routes seeking service cuts. For information on all route changes, click here.
According to an ECAT memo from General Manager Kenneth Gordon, the route changes in the county are designed to improve safety, improve on-time performance, improve connectivity between routes, provide service to under-served areas, reduce complaints and improve operating efficiencies.
ECAT is required to present proposed route changes to the Board of County Commissioners for discussion and public input. After the board discusses the plans on March 11, a 30 day period for public comment will be allowed and then then plan will go back to the commission.
The North Escambia to Pensacola Route 60 bus in the most expensive bus per hour in the entire public transportation system in the county.
The bus costs $11.15 per passenger to operate, according to ECAT numbers from the last fiscal year — a decrease from $16.27 the previous year. That’s the most expensive cost per passenger by far over any other bus in the system, with every other route falling below $8 per person (except for a free tourist route). The next most expensive route per person is a crosstown/airport route that costs ECAT $7.82 per person. The Century and Molino to Pensacola bus is also the most expensive per hour to operate in the ECAT system, at $60.67, down from $78.29 per hour the previous year.
A total of 9 ,430 riders took the Route 60 bus over a one year period, up from 7,819 the previous year. That compares to 162,403 on a Davis Highway area bus.
Pictured above: The “Route 60″ Century and Molino to Pensacola ECAT route map. Pictured below: A timetable for the bus. Click to enlarge.
Comments
One Response to “ECAT Announces Route Changes Including Decreased Service For North Escambia”
The majority of the Century ECAT customers follow a set schedule of Monday thru Friday boarding times. This schedule is currently altered on Saturday which prohibits the regular customers from utilizing the ECAT system. I am such a customer. Before ECAT cancels the Saturday service to Century, I feel they should try having the same schedule on Saturday as it is on Monday thru Friday. This will allow the customers that use it to get back and forth to work on Saturdays. This may improve the customer ratio which along with the use of the smaller bus scheduled to be used may allow ECAT to maintain the Saturday service. I feel it is worth the attempt before just taking the service away using only the current customer use statistics.