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

GOAL 1: TO DEVELOP NEW BUSINESS CONTRACTS
WITH PRIVATE, NON-PROFIT PARATRANSIT PROVIDERS
IN THE AREAS OF SERVICE PROVISION, VEHICLE
MAINTENANCE AND VEHICLE FUELING.
This remains a long term goal of the district. As earlier discussed, HART has several business contracts with private, non-profit agencies to provide vehicle maintenance and fueling. These contracts help maximize the coordination of paratransit resources in the Region by centralizing service provision, vehicle maintenance and fueling within one organization.

In this manner, cost efficiencies are realized by all parties. HART benefits from the arrangements by earning revenues that are used to cover overhead and indirect costs and as match for federal grants.

HART's goal is to expand business contracts with other paratransit providers in the Region to further promote coordination of paratransit resources. Potential business contracts could be arranged with the State Department of Mental Retardation (DMR) which operates a small fleet of vans in the Region, the Danbury Senior Center which operates two vans for senior transportation, and the American Red Cross which operates a small fleet of sedans used to provide medical trips.

Such contractual arrangements continue to be a vital source of revenues for HART and help to minimize cost increases that could be passed on to local governments, taxpayers and passengers.

Secondary Objectives: - Service contracts with John Paul Center, Red Cross, YMCA, Ashlar, and Danbury Hospital.

GOAL 2: RECERTIFICATION OF SWEETHART CLIENTS.
In July 1996, HART purchased a computerized dispatch system, QV/PASS (originally Trapeze QV) manufactured by UMA, Inc. of Ontario, Canada. PASS is a fully automated scheduling system which is quite complex to operate. The system hardware and software, considered one of the most advanced in the industry, has been upgraded twice since the last TDP.

All supervisory as well as dispatch personnel have been trained to proficiency on this system since the last TDP update.

A review of passenger eligibility for the SweetHART system has not been completed since 1995. Some people who were once eligible for the service may no longer qualify. Other passengers may be ADA eligible but are not classified accordingly. Recertification would help efficiency by reducing the amount of ineligible people who are still using the service and placing ADA eligible clients on ADA vehicles.

These steps will ultimately reduce the burden on runs assigned to individual municipalities and open up the service to new clients.

GOAL 3: CONTINUED COMPLIANCE WITH
ALL REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO COMPLEMENTARY
PARATRANSIT SERVICE AS ASSOCIATED WITH
THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA).
The ADA imposed a number of legal requirements on transit systems across the nation. Full compliance with the transit related provisions was mandated by January 1997. Six paratransit service criteria are identified by ADA for compliance including fares, trip purposes, response times, capacity constraints, service area and comparable days and hours of service.

These criteria were set to make this type of paratransit service as comparable as possible to fixed route services.

HART achieved full compliance with the six ADA service criteria in January 1996. Since FY 1994, an annual apportionment from the State Department of Transportation has allowed for the provision of complementary ADA paratransit service. HART’s fleet is currently 100% accessible with ADA compliant lifts.

HART's goal is to maintain compliance with ADA regulations moving forward through the next five years. As the disabled community has become accustomed to using HART services and workplaces have become accessible, more trips are being made. It may be necessary for HART to seek other funding sources if demand for ADA trips outstrips available funds in order to remain in compliance.

GOAL 4: TO SECURE ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE
OPERATION OF EXISTING SERVICES AND THEIR EXPANSION.
In order to continue to meet the region's mobility needs and keep pace with the growth in demand for paratransit service by elderly and particularly disabled passengers, additional SweetHART service is now needed in several towns.

Overall, SweetHART service levels have remained roughly unchanged for the past ten years, with some addition or reduction in service by municipality depending on local funding.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) placed requirements on SweetHART to operate days and hours that are comparable with those provided by fixed route service. This requires HART to allocate some service from peak periods of the day to times when demand is much lower.

Further, the ADA gave priority to passengers whose disability and trip requirements met specified conditions. As a result, more time-consuming wheelchair trips have grown from approximately 2000 annual boardings in 1991 to nearly 7000 in fiscal year 2002.

Trips among non-senior passengers with disabilities began outnumbering trips among seniors in 1997 in some municipalities. Additional service is needed to cover the required span of service as mandated by ADA, reduce the number of trip denials presently being experienced, and recapture ridership from passengers who have given up on the system after repeated denials.

Any new service would be regional in nature. Regional services have more flexibility in meeting ridership demands because they are not bound to any single municipality. Scheduling on these vehicles is more efficient because they can transport clients in close proximity, but from different municipalities.

Existing State and Federal funding sources are not keeping pace with increasing costs; federal operating funding in particular has not increased since the mid 1990’s. New funding sources proposed through the President’s New Freedom Initiative may provide an infusion of additional support.

By agreement with HVCEO, HART provides transit planning services beyond those for operation of bus vehicles. Rail service, station car and vanpool planning is integrated by HART into its traditional primary interest.

Bus expansion plans are integrated with other transit expansion plans. Accordingly, please proceed to the seventh section of this bus plan discussing multi-modal coordination goals.

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