Metro plans more bus shelters, GPS system
The Greater Portland Transit District, also known as Metro, is planning a two-phase program starting this fall to add more bus shelters in the city and a GPS system accessible via a mobile app and at key stations to provide real-time updates on bus locations.
Metro board member Jeff Levine, who also is director of the Planning and Urban Development Department for the city of Portland, told Mainebiz that the plan comes out of work by Metro to raise the quality and reliability of public transportation in Portland.
“We’re bringing out a bunch of new bus shelters so people who are waiting for the bus have a more pleasant place to wait,” he said. “They should be coming out in the fall. So on Congress Street there should be a bunch of new bus shelters and in other key locations in the city and in Falmouth and Westbrook.”
Levine added that Metro is finishing procurement for the first phase of the program.
The second piece of the program is real-time information on the buses. “We’re going to have GPS so either on your phone as part of an app or at key stations there will be actual signs that say, ‘Next No. 2 bus in two minutes,’” he said. “I think that will get rid of a lot of the unreliability concerns and ‘How long am I going to wait here?’ — particularly in January.”
“If you’re in the coffee shop you can check your phone to see if the bus is coming, and it’s really coming,” he added. “We have a pretty good transit system for a city this size already, but I think we all want to raise the ante.”
He said the city also is looking shorter term at a possible “bus rapid transit” system by which a bus on a key route would stop every quarter mile rather than on every street block, so it will move more quickly. There would be stations along the route where riders could wait for the buses.
In addition, a trolley or rail system may be considered in the city.
“As we continue to grow as a city, I think we’ll be looking at a rail system at some point,” Levine added.
Last fall, Metro presented a proposal to expand bus service to Cumberland, Freeport and Yarmouth using a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant and some local funding.
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