UNH students, faculty and staff may soon want to hop on the bus: a recent proposition by UNH Transportation Services could bring big changes to Wildcat Transit as early as October of this year.
If an application for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funding is approved, then UNH and Durham residents will enjoy a new route to Rochester, NH as well as three new low floor transit buses which will run entirely on natural gas or biodiesel. And that’s not even all that UNH Transportation Services has in store.
“The plan is to get COAST to feed into our stop in Rochester,” said Dirk Timmons, Director of UNH Transportation, at a public meeting about their plans last week. The future stop, which is expected to be located at the parking lot across from Lowe’s in Rochester, would be the size of the lot C parking lot at UNH. It would be built through state funds.
COAST, The Cooperative Alliance for Seacoast Transportation, currently services the seacoast region of New Hampshire as well as Berwick, Maine. Wildcat transit already has links with COAST in Dover, Portsmouth and Newmarket and hopes to expand to Rochester as well.
“The service will expand transit linkages,” said Timmons in a public statement. It will also be the first Wildcat Transit route that is designed to bring students and employees to campus by 7 a.m.
The new route will offer students and Durham residents more options for shopping as well. One of the stops will be placed at the new Lee Market Basket Plaza. “[T]his additional route may help stimulate the economy by servicing nearby retailers and providing students with additional shopping options,” said Timmons in his statement.
The run from Durham to Rochester will also provide undergraduate and graduate students with new opportunities for cost-effective rental units. “We are open to adding stops as well if new housing units are built,” said Manager Beverly Cray.
“I would definitely consider living in Barrington or Rochester if it were cheaper,” said sophomore Stephanie Perkins, who currently lives in an off-campus apartment in Durham now. “I could save so much money,” said Perkins.
In addition to providing more options, the bus route may help many residents and student save money. Students, faculty and staff will still be able to ride for free as long as they present an ID card. Other Durham and local residents will be able to ride for a low cash fare. “We offer one of the most cost-effective transit services in New Hampshire,” said Timmons in his statement.
Another benefit of the expansion is that the connection will help decrease traffic and thus improve air quality along NH 125 and US4. The buses, which are largely run on biodiesel or natural gas, greatly reduce carbon emissions. “We are one of the cleanest transit fleets in New England,” said Timmons.
Being clean is important when you are also the largest transit fleet in New Hampshire. Ridership in 2009 exceeded 1.1 million passenger trips and has been increasing by 5% each year. In other words, 4.4 million vehicle miles were removed through Wildcat Transit, reducing carbon emission by over 21,200 tons.
If UNH Transportation Service’s request for CMAQ funds is approved, then three new, large buses will be added to the fleet. The buses, which are clean and fully ADA accessible offering audible stop announcements, bike racks and low floors, and are run on clean ultra-low sulfur B20 biodiesel or CNG. These buses will cost approximately $444,000 each, but by replacing these vehicles cost per mile expenditures will drop by $2.05 per mile. This correlates to a savings of $78,365 per year.
However in order for all of this to pass, UNH Transportation Service’s request for CMAQ funding must be selected from a large number of applicants and approved. The Rochester Bus Association, Rochester City Council and town of Durham, among others, have all offered their support via letters to CMAQ. “It helps to have five letters of support,” said Timmons.
UNH Transportation will hear in May whether or not their application will be accepted. UNH Transportation Services encourages local support and suggests writing to the state CMAQ Committee members. “I think the Rochester route has a very good chance of being the number one selected,” said Timmons.
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