A new public transit service is now offering three communities in Southern Berkshire County a new way to get around. The TriTown Connector pilot program launched in May, and offers residents of Great Barrington, Stockbridge and Egremont an on-demand, low-cost transportation option. 19-year-old Tate Coleman is the program’s manager. For years, WAMC has covered his efforts to overhaul public transportation in the Southern Berkshires to better serve the community. Formerly the Chairman of the Great Barrington Public Transportation Advisory Committee, Coleman has carried out surveys, research, and outreach to help improve regional infrastructure, from updating routing to embracing rideshare technology. He tells WAMC that this new undertaking is an attempt to bring public microtransit options to Berkshire County.
COLEMAN: The TriTown Connector offers rides for individuals in these three – communities Great Barrington, Egremont, and Stockbridge – on weekdays from 7am to 8pm, and weekends from 8 to 8. And so, our priority population is definitely seniors and persons with disabilities. It is an expansion of the existing Council on Aging service that the town of Great Barrington has provided for a few years for Great Barrington seniors, which only ran 8 to 4 on weekdays. So basically, we're taking that service, we're expanding it, and we're opening it up to the general public both for workforce trips, medical rides, but also any other rides people need to take.
WAMC: So, give us a sense of the range here exactly. What is this new network?
The TriTown Connector serves Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and Egremont. We also provide limited rides for seniors and persons with disabilities to New Marlborough and Monterey as well as medical rides to Pittsfield.
And what does the service cost people?
For an intown ride, it's two bucks. And for a ride between different towns, it is $3.50 for residents.
So, explain to me the thinking behind this- What sort of need was this addressing in the community?
Specifically, the main goal of this service is to provide this evening and weekend service, especially for workforce individuals as well as our aging population. Because those who ride the BRTA fixed route public bus know that it ends around 6pm on weekdays, doesn't run on Sundays, and stops early on Saturdays. So, that's a useful service during the week, during the daytime, during most of the week. But anyone who doesn't live on that hourly bus route or works later or even earlier, because we start at 6, 7am, as well as anybody who needs to go anywhere on Sundays. If they don't have a car, they're really out of luck until this service came, has been started in these three communities. So now we are really meeting a need both for seniors and also especially workforce population.
So, what's next? I mean, obviously, this one program is not going to solve all those problems. So where are you directing your attention to next as you continue to address equity and just sort of basic logistic issues with public transit in the Southern Berkshires?
So, I mean, this is intended as a one-year pilot service. And so, these three communities were selected through a yearlong Berkshire County microtransit planning study that I conducted with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission about two years ago now. So, this was selected as a one-year pilot zone. And so, the idea is to take the results of what we find, lessons learned, what ridership we're seeing, and what those trends are, and apply that to other places – if successful – we can then apply that to other places in our county.
Tate, anything about this I've not thought to ask you do you want to make sure folks understand?
Well, I just think that it's really important to note that this is an extremely important lifeline resource for some members of our community, also those who might, you know, households with only one car, and two people need to go to work. That's a huge need that we're able to meet. Seniors who aren't able to drive anymore, is also something we're able to help. And something I'll just mention is that the fare has actually gotten cheaper for the seniors. So, the council on aging service was $3.50 for a one-way, in-town trip. Now we're charging them only $2. Seniors have been very happy about this, and we're allowing them increased mobility not only in terms of hours, but a decreased cost.
