Commuting Boston Student
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- Jan 17, 2012
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Well, as of tomorrow morning, Wickford Junction has been open for business for a whole month - the next step in a many step plan to get proper commuter rail running through Rhode Island, instead of just to and out of Providence. Future plans call for service to Westerly and Woonsocket, with several infill stations along the way - East Greenwich, Cranston, Pawtucket, and others - but not Newport, for which I've been assured the price tag for getting rail any way that isn't South Coast Rail through Fall River is not just cost-prohibitive, but beyond high-budget to the point of insanity.
I came to resign myself to the fact, then, that the only way to get to Newport from South County (barring any complicated transfers or excessive doubling back) was going to have to be by a bus, which led me to start thinking about RIPTA and the bus network Rhode Island currently has in place.
And frankly? South of Warwick is a gaping transit hole, with the exception of - you guessed it - Newport, which is doing pretty good as far as bus service goes. South County itself, on the other hand, is served on a theoretical level only by three Flex buses operating in Westerly, Narragansett, and on URI's campus. (While there are four fixed bus routes that 'operate' in South County, all four are meant for getting people into Providence rather than through service in South County - with the 90 bus literally bearing the designation of 'Park and Rides.')
In the interest of full disclosure, that's probably in no small part because there isn't a whole hell of a lot going on in South County that would attract people - other than the beaches, but the way Route 1 works in South County makes it literally impossible to cross without at least one U-Turn. I imagine that's a death sentence for trying to run a bus route that would need to turn on and off of Route 1, which kills just about any bus route with merit other than express service Westerly-Newport.
Which brings me to my next point, and the point of this thread - just how sparse is too sparse for transit? At what does it become cost-prohibitive even to run a token bus through a town, much less frequent service?
I submit that South County is close to this point - but not quite there, and could absolutely benefit from a few new bus routes.
I want to hear what you guys think, even if that's just "you're nuts, Commuting Boston Student."
I came to resign myself to the fact, then, that the only way to get to Newport from South County (barring any complicated transfers or excessive doubling back) was going to have to be by a bus, which led me to start thinking about RIPTA and the bus network Rhode Island currently has in place.
And frankly? South of Warwick is a gaping transit hole, with the exception of - you guessed it - Newport, which is doing pretty good as far as bus service goes. South County itself, on the other hand, is served on a theoretical level only by three Flex buses operating in Westerly, Narragansett, and on URI's campus. (While there are four fixed bus routes that 'operate' in South County, all four are meant for getting people into Providence rather than through service in South County - with the 90 bus literally bearing the designation of 'Park and Rides.')
In the interest of full disclosure, that's probably in no small part because there isn't a whole hell of a lot going on in South County that would attract people - other than the beaches, but the way Route 1 works in South County makes it literally impossible to cross without at least one U-Turn. I imagine that's a death sentence for trying to run a bus route that would need to turn on and off of Route 1, which kills just about any bus route with merit other than express service Westerly-Newport.
Which brings me to my next point, and the point of this thread - just how sparse is too sparse for transit? At what does it become cost-prohibitive even to run a token bus through a town, much less frequent service?
I submit that South County is close to this point - but not quite there, and could absolutely benefit from a few new bus routes.
I want to hear what you guys think, even if that's just "you're nuts, Commuting Boston Student."