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PVTA Service Improvements Come Without Fare Hikes

WAMC

Extensive state-financed service changes are being rolled out later this month at the largest regional transit authority in western Massachusetts.   Pioneer Valley Transit Authority riders are being promised faster, more efficient, and cost-effective service.      

The changes include seven new routes, longer hours of service – mostly on the weekends – on 14 routes, and buses running more frequently on 15 routes.  This will be the transit authority’s biggest change in fixed-route bus schedules in nearly a decade, according to PVTA Administrator Mary MacInnes.

"Our passengers have deserved this service for a long time, but it is only now we have been able to get the funding to provide this service."

The service improvements will occur without raising fares because the PVTA is receiving an additional $4.2 million from the state.  The money is from the $500 million transportation finance bill the legislature approved last year.

The changes will start on August 24th in the Springfield and Northampton areas and on September 2nd in the Amherst area.   The service changes are based on an analysis completed earlier this year by a transportation consultant and feedback to the PVTA from riders at public hearings and by letter and email.

"Ridership has gone up in each of the last seven years. So if we can increase ridership without improving service, imagine what will happen to the ridership when we do have significant service improvements," said MacInnes.

MacInnes said the PVTA has launched a campaign to publicize the changes that will include ads on television and radio.

The major changes include the addition of crosstown buses in Springfield that will eliminate the need for riders to travel to the central bus terminal and take another bus out.  A new route between Holyoke and Amherst is being promoted as providing access to educational opportunities for Holyoke residents and shopping opportunities for college students at the Holyoke Mall.

Six routes with low ridership are being eliminated.  Stops are being discontinued to streamline service on a dozen routes.

The PVTA has 13 million annual riders.  Sixty percent of the riders have incomes that put them below the federal poverty line, according to the PVTA.

John Bennett of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, who is an advocate for public transportation, said it is significant the service enhancements are not being accompanied by a fare hike.

" We have had no fare increases here in the Pioneer Valley since 2008, and I think that is remarkable."

Bennett said the PVTA appears to have done a good job designing the new service.

" I think  we are going to have to s wait and see how people react to it. There are so many changes occurring, I don't know if people are well informed about changes in their particular area."

The PVTA is going to experiment this fall in the town of South Hadley with a bus service that deviates from a fixed route on an on-demand basis.

The PVTA is also going to conduct a study with MassDOT and the city of Springfield on the feasibility of introducing high-capacity, high-frequency buses that would operate in a designated bus lane.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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