PDRTA took possession of 2 brand new 26 passenger trolley buses this morning. These trolleys are for the Florence Transit System (FTS), are ADA equipped and, for the first time in our fleet, feature bike racks on the front. These represent a $375,000 investment in the Florence urbanized area, city and county. I should add that PDRTA complies with “Buy America”, which means that these buses are manufactured in the US with predominantly US parts, so we help keep Americans working.
It’ll be approx 4 weeks before you’ll see these “on the street” as we must complete final mechanical inspections, tags, training, and adding (we hope) an adaptation of the new Florence branding logos.
We expect delivery of another 5 new Florence Transit buses by April 30, 2009. These will represent a $1.1M investment in FTS. Additionally, we will spend approx. $300,000 to retrofit FTS and other buses with state-of-the-art “smart card” automated fareboxes and bus passes. We’ll also be adding WiFi to FTS buses and trolleys.
Thanks to Florence County Planning Dept, we’re making significant progress on new route maps (Scott and Debi—thank you!—we’ll be adding new cross-town routes and Saturday services soon, so we’ll be in touch). Once the routes are mapped, we’ll be putting up new bus stop signs along the routes. We have funding for bus shelters as well, and we hope to work with both the city and county on those.
With a new administration coming in January, federal transit funding opportunities are expected to increase. I hope that PDRTA will be able to partner with local governments and private sources to accomplish a number of projects.
Thank you all for your support. Have a Merry Christmas!
Janice
And in no way have we paid Janice to say those great things about the Planning Dept! FLATS and the Planning Department continue to be here to help the PDRTA as we are for all Florence County residents.
Just for more emphasis... they have bike racks!
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