WESTBROOK – A new project to update and consolidate all the Greater Portland Metro bus stops in its coverage area could eliminate 18 bus stops in Westbrook and reposition 10.
Leading up to any official changes, Metro officials have been meeting with both municipal leaders and residents in Westbrook, and approval by Metro’s board of directors would be required to initiate the consolidation.
At both the Westbrook City Council Monday and a public meeting Tuesday, Metro officials said the bus stop updates will work as a way to improve “transit travel times,” which heavily affect ridership and are a common complaint from riders.
Greg Jordan, Metro’s general manager, said Monday that too many stops create longer trips, which cause public transportation to become a “less competitive mode of transportation.”
Jordan said instead of stops occurring about every eighth of a mile, Metro established the proposed new system based on stops every quarter of a mile.
In total, Westbrook has 96 stops included, mostly on the No. 4 bus, which runs down Main Street from Brighton Avenue in Portland and continues downtown and as far as Idexx Laboratories off Eisenhower Drive. Metro’s No. 2 bus also comes into Westbrook running past the Prides Corner area.
According to Westbrook Finance Director Alicia Gardiner, the city pays Metro $403,696 annually for the bus service.
Councilor John O’Hara said Monday at the council meeting that he believes consolidating stops would “drive away some of your customers.” O’Hara also said he believes Westbrook does not receive adequate attention from Metro, given the amount of the annual fee the city pays.
O’Hara said he would like to see the city receive more covered bus stops before consolidation.
“My advice to you is not to consolidate, but to look for ways to shelter your customers,” he said, referring especially to the winter months. “We pay good money, and get very little in regards to sheltering.”
Metro’s Greater Portland system has some 800 bus stops, with this project potentially removing or relocating 100 of those stops.
The need for quicker travel times is included in Metro’s strategic plan for 2014, and at its April meeting, the Metro board’s ridership committee requested that bus stop placement standards and consolidation become a priority. A memo associated with the public meetings said the goal of the consolidation is to “balance walking distance with bus travel time.”
At Tuesday’s public meeting at Walker Memorial Library, Glenn Fenton, Metro’s chief transportation officer, outlined the basis for the moves, as well as specific stops that are proposed to be eliminated.
Fenton said that there are an average of six to seven stops per mile in the Metro coverage area, which prompts a common complaint about slow travel speed.
Of the seven residents who came out to the meeting, most of their comments focused on advocating for bus routes to come closer to their residence or business. One resident of the Hamlet, off Saco Street, was perplexed as to why the bus system turns around at Idexx, instead of servicing a possible 1,100 people living at the Hamlet.
One resident who lives off Main Street was concerned for the proposed removal of both stops in the vicinity of Tom & Jerry’s Car Wash, while another asked Fenton why the bus can’t extend service to The Villa off Brook Road, which is home to about 20 residents with disabilities.
“The tricky part of this is we’re trying to balance the access against the speed of the system. Every time a bus stops, its reducing the speed and making the trip less desirable for people who have the option of not taking the bus,” Fenton said.
According to Jordan, the Metro board will vote on the bus stop consolidation on Sept. 24. If approved, notices will be placed in each bus stop slated for removal, and the new stops will be initiated in mid-October.
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