BARNSTABLE – Officials with the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA) highlighted upcoming improvements to services and growing ridership numbers during a recent meeting with the Cape Cod Joint Transportation Committee.
Director of Planning and Grants for the CCRTA Leah LaCross explained that they were recently made aware of $424,977 of funding from Fiscal Year 2019 that has not yet distributed. That, mixed with a proposal for additional state aid, has prompted the authority to anticipate improvements to its Dial-A-Ride–or DART–services.
“We’re asking to obligate those funds to purchase approximately seven electric buses–so that’s seven smaller electric vehicles–for our demand response service,” LaCross said.
LaCross said the CCRTA expects that proposal to be approved by the state in a timely manner.
The CCRTA’s Deputy Administrator Chris Kennedy pointed to an increase in local ridership during the meeting. He said that ridership has grown back to about 90% compared to years prior at this time, and that the CCRTA is seeing better numbers than similar services throughout Massachusetts.
“We were, in the earlier days of the pandemic, around 30% capacity, and grew up to the summer of this past year to about 50 to 60%,” Kennedy said.
“We’re optimistic about that, and some of our routes have grown back to full capacity, which is great.”
Kennedy summarized additional improvements that the CCRTA is looking to make in 2022. A new website that includes a trip planner and interactive routes is on the cusp of being launched, while they are also trying to expand on-demand services across the Cape.