From microtransit to a Keene-Brattleboro bus, planners eye new transportation options

Oct. 19—With the help of a New York City-based transportation company, regional planners are eyeing the introduction of alternate public transit systems to better connect Keene, Peterborough and Brattleboro without the need for a car.

Options range from new bus routes incorporating existing programs to "microtransit" areas that are akin to rideshare zones but that pick up multiple passengers and cost significantly less than ridesharing services like Uber or Lyft.

The Southwest Region Planning Commission is holding a series of community meetings to share the proposed options in collaboration with the company, Via Transportation. The meetings follow public input SWRPC gathered in July to determine the feasibility of introducing new bus routes and on-demand public transit to the Monadnock Region.

SWRPC and Via held two in-person meetings this week so residents could look at conceptual transit networks developed from previous feedback and the viability of each and will conclude with a virtual meeting Oct. 25. A small group of area residents met at Stone Arch Senior Housing in Keene on Tuesday after a meeting was held Monday in Peterborough.

"As a regional planning commission, it's our responsibility to reassess transportation options for people that live and work in this area every few years, because conditions change," said J.B. Mack, SWRPC's principal planner, after Tuesday's meeting. "We've been working with [Via] since January of this year, and we're going to finish up work with them in December."

In a presentation, the two organizations laid out potential microtransit systems and bus routes for Keene, Winchester and the eastern portion of the Monadnock Region. Via defines "microtransit" as a service anyone can use where a fleet of vehicles roams a set area, and passengers can travel anywhere within that area with other people heading the same direction, according to the presentation.

"You must walk to meet the vehicle (average walk of 2-3 minutes)," the presentation read. "You must make a booking to travel (smartphone app or call center)."

Proposed for the Elm City is a Greater Keene Microtransit area, a circulator bus route operating in two directions in a loop, a bus route of north-south and east-west lines and a hybrid network of microtransit vehicles and buses.

"The Greater Keene Microtransit goes all the way up to ... Tanglewood Estates and goes all the way down and covers West Swanzey at the airport and kind of goes over to Marlborough," said Cathal O'Gorman, a director at Via, during the presentation. "There's almost 25,000 people in this zone and 17,000 jobs."

The circulator bus route would serve about half the population of the microtransit area, the presentation showed, but would still include "demand hot spots" like downtown Keene, Keene State College, the West Street shopping area and Cheshire Medical Center. If implemented, O'Gorman said the route would need to include the Friendly Bus program managed by Home Healthcare, Hospice and Community Services (HCS) to accommodate those with disabilities.

"It's very similar to the current bus routes, but ... one [route] would go clockwise, and one would go anti-clockwise and would run every 30 minutes in alternating directions," O'Gorman told the audience.

The east-west and north-south proposal would see one route go 3.8 miles between the area of Wheelock Park to Robin Hood Park, while another would span 14 miles from the Keene Family YMCA to Market Basket on Winchester Street. The routes would respectively be 15 minutes and 50 minutes roundtrip, with a connection between the two at the Keene Transportation Center.

Any service implemented would cost roughly $1 in fares, which O'Gorman said in an email may be slightly adjusted before it's introduced but likely not by much. He said the majority of funds to subsidize operating costs would come from federal, state and local sources.

Via estimates the hybrid concept of a microtransit zone with a bus route inside would cost the most to operate at $2 million annually while the circulator bus route would be the least expensive at $1.2 million in operating costs per year. HCS's existing Red and Black bus routes and the Friendly Bus total $700,000 yearly but with a demand of only 170 trips per weekday and 43,000 trips yearly. The conceptual microtransit and bus routes would accommodate demand upward of 10,000 more trips a year than HCS's current services, according to Via's presentation.

"The real challenge here and the big question is determining which [proposals] can actually be funded and how much money there is," O'Gorman said after his presentation. "The fact is there are already bus services within Keene, and these would cost more, but not dramatically more. We need to work with HCS, and the point of this meeting was to hear from people about which ones they're most excited about."

Via also developed two transit options linking Winchester and Keene. One would be a microtransit area spanning from north Keene to south Winchester. The other would be a bus network of 11 stops from Cheshire Medical in Keene to the Applewood Rehabilitation Center in Winchester. Each would cost $500,000 and $300,000 annually, respectively, but would provide up to 19,000 trips per year for the bus route option or up to 27,000 for the microtransit option.

For proposals serving the eastern Monadnock Region, Via also came up with either a single bus route or a microtransit area. The bus route would connect Cheshire Medical Center to Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough over 23.5 miles and include 12 stops. Meanwhile, the microtransit area would extend from north Peterborough near ConVal Regional High School to south Rindge near Hillside Cemetery.

Finally, Via and SWRPC are looking at a Keene-Brattleboro bus route serving the two communities and Chesterfield on a limited number of runs per day and theorize that it could align with the timetable of the Amtrak line in Brattleboro to create more of a demand for the route.

"It would run roughly every 90 minutes back and forth between the two areas throughout the day, and we think that there'd be demand in both ways," O'Gorman said.

A larger, regional microtransit area covering all of Cheshire County was also proposed at a cost of $2.3 million, offering as many as 59,000 trips each year in estimated demand.

"It basically would be designed for people who are in all these rural areas, say ... coming and getting you at 9 a.m. to come into Keene and meeting a few other people on the way ... then dropping you back off in the evening," O'Gorman said in the presentation. "It's a really big zone, and even given that we still think you need seven vehicles to cover all that area."

Via will collect responses and suggestions from the latest community meetings to prepare a final report to be delivered in late November, according to the company's presentation. That report will be shared with SWRPC, HCS and other stakeholders of public transportation in Cheshire County to determine which of the discussed transit alternatives are chosen to implement.

"Funding application timelines vary and may impact which alternatives are selected," the presentation read. "Prior to any changes [to existing transit], an extensive marketing campaign will ensure passengers are aware of the changes."

Those interested in registering for the final meeting between SWRPC and Via Transportation to listen to the full presentation virtually may register at tinyurl.com/NHtransit or by emailing O'Gorman at cathal@ridewithvia.com.

Trisha Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @byTrishaNail.