BUS MAIN --- 1. INTRO --- 2. GOALS BY MUNIC. --- 3. FIXED ROUTE --- 4. FIXED ROUTE GOALS
5. SWEETHART --- 6. SWEETHART GOALS --- 7. MULTIMODAL GOALS
8. ADMIN. GOALS --- 9. CAPITAL PLAN --- 10. INTERCITY BUS --- 11. LINKS

URBAN FIXED ROUTE SERVICES
The majority of HART’s fixed route services are provided to the four municipalities of Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield, and New Milford. This urban fixed route service is primarily radial in nature with seven routes extending outward from the Central Business District of Danbury.

Much of HART's fixed route service is operated within the City of Danbury. Service is scheduled to serve traffic generators such as major employers, shopping centers, medical centers, schools, the Central Business District and elderly and low income housing areas. Most major arterials in the City of Danbury are served including Main Street, North Street, Padanaram Road, White Street, Federal Road, Newtown Road, South Street, Park Avenue, Lake Avenue, Route 7 and Mill Plain Road.

The urban fixed route bus system operates in a pulse or timed-transfer mode, with all routes meeting at the Pulse Point in downtown Danbury at the same time at regular intervals throughout each day. This form of scheduling allows passengers to easily transfer from one route to another at the same place without long waits. Routes are interlined or paired together to allow a moderate proportion of passengers to travel from one route to another without physically transferring from one bus to another.

Bus frequencies of every 60 minutes are provided on all routes Monday through Saturday with 30 minute frequencies provided during the morning and afternoon peak periods (6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday). Departure times from the Pulse Point are scheduled on the hour throughout the day and additionally on the half hour during peak periods.

The span of service ranges from approximately 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Saturday span of service ranges from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. No service is provided evenings, Sundays or on major holidays.

LOOP SERVICES
HART operates four LOOP bus routes in the towns of Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury Ridgefield and New Milford. These services are designed to complement the urban fixed route system by providing service to employment and low income housing after the close of the service day or to locations beyond the Urban Fixed Route service area. The services are operated through the regional JobLinks jobs access program.

LOOP services are provided in Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield and New Milford from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., Saturdays 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. and Sundays and Holidays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Three buses create a scaled down version of the pulse system, with two buses operating hourly, and one bus (New Milford) operating every two hours.

A single LOOP bus provides hourly peak-period service between the Danbury Fair Mall and the Ridgefield Central Business District. Service operates Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 am. and 2:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Ridgefield LOOP service is designed to allow for transfers to the Urban Fixed Route system at the Danbury Fair Mall.

HARLEM LINE SHUTTLES
Two shuttles to the Harlem Line provide service between park and ride lots in Connecticut and train stations on the MTA Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line Monday-Friday. The shuttles are designed to meet morning southbound departures and afternoon and evening northbound arrivals to and from Grand Central terminal. Metro-North provides a guaranteed ride home program to shuttle users that purchase the combined rail-bus Uniticket.

The Danbury-Brewster Shuttle meets six morning departures between 6 a.m. and 8:13 am and 13 arrivals between 4:11 and 9:10 p.m. Three morning arrivals and five evening departures allow for reverse commute trips. Midday, when the shuttle is not operating, the 3 Mill Plain fixed route bus provides hourly service between the HART pulse Point and Brewster Station.

Vehicles stop at park and ride lots off I-84 exits 2, 1 and 7 and travel locally down Route 6 to the Village of Brewster. Flag stops are permitted between the New York State line and the train station. Several trips provide service to the HART Pulse Point and the Danbury Fair Mall. Passengers wishing to transfer to the Putnam County Rapid Transit (PART) bus system may do so in Brewster by presenting a HART or PART pass or transfer.

The Ridgefield-Katonah Shuttle meets six morning southbound train departures between 6:54 and 8:29 a.m. and seven northbound evening arrivals between 5:46 and 8:23 p.m. One morning arrival and three evening departures provide some opportunity for reverse commutes.

The route originates at the Jessie Lee Memorial Methodist Church lot in Ridgefield and follows Route 35 westerly to New York State. In the town of Lewisboro, the shuttle makes a second stop at the South Salem Municipal lot on Spring Street and follows Route 35 to Katonah Station. Flag stops are permitted on this route.

Passengers may transfer between the HART and Westchester County's Bee Line bus systems in Katonah by presenting a transfer or pass from either system.

DANBURY TO NORWALK ROUTE 7 LINK
The Danbury-Norwalk Route 7 Link provides service to employment along the Route 7 corridor and the downtowns of Danbury and Norwalk. Buses originate and terminate at the HART and the Norwalk Transit District (WHEELS) pulse points. Locations served include Cendant Mobility, Branchville Station, Wilton Center, Redding, Merritt Seven and 10/20 Westport Road.

The LINK provides hourly peak period service Monday-Friday between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. HART and Norwalk Transit District operate the service jointly, each providing 50% of the service.

Passengers may transfer between the WHEELS or HART systems at either terminal for free by presenting a transfer, or to and from the Coastal Link or CT TRANSIT buses in Norwalk.

CITYCENTER DANBURY TROLLEY
The fixed route on which the CityCenter Trolley operates includes many Central Business District attractions, such as the CityCenter Danbury Dining & Entertainment District, Western Connecticut State University Midtown Campus, Roger's Park, and the Kennedy Avenue Pulse Point.

The trolley service differs from other fixed route service primarily in the vehicle used (a bus designed with the appearance of a vintage trolley) and the duties of the vehicle operator, who, dressed in a nostalgic motorman's uniform, provides information about downtown attractions and events.

The service operates Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The service frequency is 30 minutes. Passengers may transfer between the Trolley and other HART services for free.

FIXED ROUTE FARE STRUCTURE
The fixed route fare structure has become somewhat more complicated over the past five years with the addition of new services and fare structures. For the convenience of the public, HART now accepts transfers or passes from five different transit systems. The system fare structure and policies are outlined below.

Urban fixed route services have three fare categories: full fare (or adult), students (Kindergarten - 12th grade) and seniors age 60 or older/persons with disabilities. Zone One fares are charged passengers traveling within the limits of any town (intratown trips) or between Danbury, Bethel, and Brookfield. Zone Two fares are applicable to passengers traveling across the Brookfield/New Milford line on the urban fixed route. LOOP and Harlem Line shuttle passengers observe the same fare structure as the Zone One fares on the urban fixed route system.

The trolley service's fare structure is a base 50 cents for any single trip. Other than free service for children under six, no fare classes exist. A single-day unlimited ride pass is available for $1.00. This pass allows the passenger to board or disembark the vehicle as many times as he or she wishes throughout a single day with no additional charge.

Passengers on the Danbury-Norwalk Route 7 LINK follow a rate schedule modeled on the Norwalk Transit District fare structure. Riders pay a base fare of $1.25, Seniors age 65 and older and persons with disabilities pay a $0.60 fare. Children under age five ride free.

Passengers are required to have the exact change to pay for all fares. Drivers carry no cash or change for security purposes.

HART offers two multi-ride passes which provide the convenience of fare prepayment and cost savings for the passenger. Bye-passes, 10 ride punch passes, provide a 10 percent discount off of cash fares. Drivers punch a ride off each pass as it is presented. Approximately 70 Bye Passes are sold accounting for 700 trips taken each month.

A monthly unlimited ride pass, known as a FastPass, is available for those who travel frequently. A passenger traveling 40 times in a month using a FastPass will begin to save relative to the cash fare. The FastPass, available for all fare classes and zone options, is the most popular prepaid fare option, with approximately 100 FastPasses sold accounting for 3,900 trips each month.

Individual ride tickets are sold to non-profit agencies to provide transportation to their clientele. No discounts are given for the purchase of these tickets.

HART honors MTA Metro-North Railroad UniTickets, a single pass which offers a coordinated fare option to passengers transferring between buses and trains. UniTickets are sold by Metro-North for weekly or monthly travel and are accepted on all fixed route services with the exception of the CityCenterTrolley.

HART has transfer agreements with the New York counties of Westchester and Putnam to allow free transfers between systems at the Katonah and Brewster train stations. Passengers may board using the other systems’ transfers or passes at these locations.

HART transfers are accepted on WHEELS buses in Norwalk, and WHEELS transfers are accepted in Danbury. Users of the Link service may board using any valid HART or Norwalk Transit District fare media. Free transfers between the Coastal Link and CT TRANSIT buses may also be made in Norwalk.

TransitChek is accepted as payment for discount fare media. TransitChek is a federally approved tax-deductible program that allows employers to provide vouchers to cover the cost of commuting to work by public transit.

RIDERSHIP
Ridership on the HART fixed route system has increased steadily from 1978 when under 140,000 trips were made through 2002 when almost 790,000 trips were made.

Over the 25 year period, only a few years showed decreases in ridership. The year 1986, when the Pulse Point was moved, experienced a decrease of 3% compared to the year before. Decreases were also experienced for fiscal years 1991 through 1994.

Ridership decreased by 13 percent to 584,404 from 1990 through 1994, a period which included a recession, two fare increases and the loss of funding for the Ridgefield Fixed-Route service. These losses were quickly turned around in 1997, when 693,725 annual trips were carried. A portion of the increase that year is a result of the start of the Danbury CityCenter Trolley.

The last five fiscal years have continued to produce positive annual ridership numbers for HART -- overall, ridership increased 12% over the period. There were record totals for the fiscal year 1998 and then again in 1999. The 4% increase that was experienced in 1999 compared to the previous year can partly be attributed to the start of the Danbury-Brewster Shuttle. Ridership remained flat in 2000 although two new services were added, the Danbury Mall LOOP and New Milford LOOP.

The next year experienced another increase with the start of the third LOOP service in Ridgefield. Fiscal year 2002 continued the trend, producing a record total of 789,765 annual trips for the system. The latest gains stem from the introduction of the Danbury-Norwalk Link and the Ridgefield-Katonah Shuttle, a substantial increase in service on Danbury-Brewster and increased ridership on LOOP services.

NATIONAL FIXED ROUTE
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON
Ten similar transit systems were selected nationally in order to contrast HART and its service performance to others. The peer group was originally chosen by consultants for the Connecticut DOT Statewide Bus System Study as similar–sized systems to HART serving approximately the same population size.

The group is as follows: Montachusett (Fitchburg, MA), Cape Cod (MA), Muskegon (MI), Rochester (MN), Missoula (MT), Manchester (NH), LAKETRAN (Cleveland, OH), Westmoreland County. (PA), Beaver County (PA), and Waukesha County (WI). The table updates the peer comparison as selected for the statewide study, using data from the 2001 National Transit Database report.

HART compared well in the ridership category having the second highest ridership total out of these 11 systems for fiscal year 2001. The mean ridership of this peer group was 589,112. HART reported a ridership of 762,543 for 2001, which is 29% above average. In terms of productivity measured as passengers per hour, HART is 28% better at 16.36 pass/hr than the mean of 12.77. Within the peer group, system productivity ranged between 6.82 pass/hr (Cape Cod) and 22.23 (Rochester, MN). HART ranked the third highest in passengers per hour with 16.36 in 2001.

When comparing HART to Rochester, MN, the transit system that had the highest ridership total, HART had the lower operating cost of the two for 2001 by nearly $440,000. Waukesha County Transit System, WI, which reported ridership closest to HART (761,413), had more than $950,000 in operating expenditures than HART.

When looking at financial efficiency, actual dollar cost per service hour and mile, HART ranked as the second lowest cost per hour in 2001 at $46.50, above only Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, MA ($39.88). Beaver County Transit Authority in Pennsylvania ($72.70) and AKETRAN in Cleveland, Ohio ($65.61) had the highest per-hour costs. HART also ranked as the second lowest cost per mile in 2001 at $2.88, above only Waukesha County ($2.50). Montachusett Regional Transit Authority in Fitchburg, MA ($4.67) and Manchester Transit Authority, NH ($4.36) had the highest per-mile costs.

Finally, operating cost per passenger is a measure of cost effectiveness. In 2001, HART services cost $2.84 per passenger trip. This cost is 40% lower than the peer group mean. The highest cost per passenger reported in 2001 was $8.27 for Westmoreland County Transit Authority in Pennsylvania and the lowest was $2.23 in Rochester, MN. HART had the third lowest cost per passenger out of the peer group.

FIXED ROUTE PERFORMANCE COMPARISON
IN THE CONNECTICUT-NEW YORK REGION
For comparison purposes closer to home, eight other transit systems, seven in Connecticut and one in New York, were selected to contrast HART's performance compared to others in the region. These include the Greater Bridgeport, Waterbury, Norwalk, Middletown, New Britain, CT Transit Stamford, Norwich and Putnam County, New York transit systems. There is a wide variety of service provision and population in the service areas. In most cases, the group shares little in common outside of geography.

When compared to the regional group, HART reported below the mean for ridership and productivity for fiscal year 2001. In both cases, HART ranked sixth out of the nine systems. gain, note that three of the systems serve large urban areas and operate in cities far more densely populated than the Housatonic Region. HART provides well below the group mean service hours of 66,380.

In general, a system's ridership and hourly costs increase and its operating speed decreases with the population of the city. More densely-populated cities provide a larger ridership base, but urban travel is slower than suburban and rural travel, and driver wages and administrative salaries tend to be higher in larger systems.

This explains why Greater Bridgeport and CT Transit Stamford, though generating the greatest ridership, have high costs per hour and per mile. Putnam County New York, although generating the lowest ridership, does not have the lowest cost per hour, owing to its proximity to large urban areas in Westchester and New York City, and associated cost of living.

HART ranked the second lowest overall among regional peers for cost per hour ($46.50) and third lowest for cost per mile ($2.88) for the service efficiency category. Among the transit systems listed, cost per hour varied between $43.28 (New Britain) to $63.89 (Bridgeport).

VEHICLES
HART operates a fleet of accessible vehicles in fixed route service including:

• Ten 2001 Orion V 35-foot transit coaches,
• Ten 1995 35-foot RTS transit coaches,
• Four 1989 35-foot Orion I coaches,
• Two 2001 40-foot New Flyer D40LF transit coaches,
• Five 2001 StarTrans Supreme body on chassis buses
• Five 2002 ElDorado Aerotech body on chassis buses.
• One 1996 Cable Car Concepts Minitrolley
• One 2003 DuponTrolley Frontenac trolley

All vehicles are equipped with modern features and amenities. These include wheelchair lifts or ramps, air conditioning, sliding tinted windows and two-way radios. Urban fixed route vehicles have kneeling features, electronic registering fareboxes, and electronic destination signs. Seating capacity and vehicle type varies by service application.

MAINTENANCE/OPERATIONS FACILITY
In October, 1992, HART completed the purchase of its present bus maintenance/operations facility at 62 Federal Road in Danbury. In August 1996, HART began the rehabilitation and expansion of the facility to include covered indoor storage space for all vehicles, a bus wash, and office space sufficient to locate all HART administrative staff under one roof. The facility was purchased for approximately $1.9 million.

The expansion and renovation of the facility was an $8.2 million project funded by the Federal Transit Administration and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. All HART administrative offices were moved to the Federal Road facility in January of 1998.

TRANSFER POINT
Construction of HART's Downtown Danbury Pulse Point was completed in 1994. The Pulse Point is located on public right-of-way along Kennedy Avenue west of Main Street. The location serves as the hub of the fixed route bus system and is within a short walking distance (about one block) from the Central Business District and directly opposite the Bonanza intercity bus terminal on Elm Street.

The facility includes a 450 square foot ticket sales building, a large canopied waiting area for passengers, shelters and benches, recessed bus loading bays for up to 10 buses, ornamental street lighting, ornamental iron fence, sidewalks, pedestrian crosswalk, information displays, and landscaping.

PASSENGER WAITING SHELTERS
HART maintains passenger shelters at 11 locations in addition to the Pulse Point. Two shelters are located on Main Street in Danbury in front of the Danbury Public Library and Kimberly Place Apartments; one shelter is located at Glen Apartments on Memorial Drive; two shelters are located on Wooster Street in front of Wooster Manor and Crosby Manor apartment complexes; and one each is located on the grounds Bishop Curtis Homes in Bethel and Brooks Quarry in Brookfield. HART recently replaced ConnDOT shelters at the exit 2 and 1 of I-84 park and ride lots and installed a third at the Federal Road (Danbury) park and ride lot.

BUS STOP SIGNS
In 1993, HART installed approximately 450 bus stop signs in Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury and New Milford. The signs were installed as part of a comprehensive effort to better manage passenger boarding and alighting activity on the fixed route system.

Distance between stops is generally 1/8 mile but varies depending on street configuration and the degree of urbanization. Bus stop locations are subject to approval by the State Traffic Commission and municipal authorities.

The signs are trimmed in red with blue lettering and feature the HART logo, information telephone number, "no parking" symbol, and disabled access symbol. Signs in the Danbury central business district on the CityCenter Trolley route display bus and trolley graphics.

The next section builds in this inventory with a statement of goals for HART fixed route service.

BUS MAIN --- 1. INTRO --- 2. GOALS BY MUNIC. --- 3. FIXED ROUTE --- 4. FIXED ROUTE GOALS
5. SWEETHART --- 6. SWEETHART GOALS --- 7. MULTIMODAL GOALS
8. ADMIN. GOALS --- 9. CAPITAL PLAN --- 10. INTERCITY BUS --- 11. LINKS