More than 8,000 people who live in Lanark County drive to Ottawa to work. Part of their daily commute includes crowded highways, traffic gridlock and frazzled nerves.
Lanark Community Transit, a not-for-profit public-transit system, is planning to provide an alternative to that daily grind by offering an efficient and reliable commuter bus service to Ottawa. It hopes to integrate its service with Ottawa’s public transit system, which would allow Lanark Community Transit’s buses to access OC Transpo’s Hwy. 417 bus lanes, as well as allowing riders to transfer onto city buses at no extra charge.
A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 16 to provide information on Lanark Community Transit’s plans to offer this new service to residents of Lanark County and Smiths Falls. The meeting will be held at the Carleton Place arena at 7 p.m.
The plan is to provide bus service to residents of Lanark Highlands, Mississippi Mills, Drummond/North Elmsley, Perth, Tay Valley, Carleton Place, Montague, Beckwith and Smiths Falls, where the need is shown to exist. During the public meeting, the consultant’s feasibility study will be presented, with discussion to follow.
Cliff Neudorf, president of Lanark Community Transit, says the next step will be to request support from the area councils, which will have to pass a bylaw to regulate community transit within their jurisdictions. Once the bylaws are passed, Lanark Community Transit will move to the request for proposal stage and identify a service provider. The result will be lower commuter costs, less environmental impact with fewer cars on the roads, and possible economic benefits to this region as a result of its improved transportation infrastructure.
Lanark Community Transit has obtained financial support from Valley Heartland Community Futures Development Corporation and the Town of Carleton Place. This has enabled it to hire an Ottawa firm to conduct a feasibility study and to draft a business plan for the self-sustaining commuter service. The study will also consider an option to offer student tickets so young people could continue to live in Lanark County while attending college or university in Ottawa. Lanark Community Transit hopes to start operating by November of this year.
Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meeting, as it affects the future development of the community.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.