The Vermont Agency of Transportation is continuing to experiment with so-called microtransit bus routes, as transportation companies across the state battle rising costs and changes in ridership.
Southeast Vermont Transit will be trying out a new, on-call bus service in Springfield in the fall. It will be the sixth town in the state to run a pilot program under the VTrans Microtransit Study.
“The system that’s running now just covers a corridor through Springfield,” said Southeast Vermont Transit CEO Randy Schoonmaker. “The new, proposed microtransit system will serve all of Springfield, a much larger area.”
Under the microtransit model, riders can contact the transit company, either by phone or through an app, and request a ride anywhere within Springfield or North Springfield between the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
The company will hold public meetings at the Springfield Public Library on July 29 at 5:30 p.m. and on Aug. 7 at 12 p.m. to talk about the changes.
“The idea of the meeting is to introduce the concept of microtransit to people who’ve never ridden it before,” Schoonmaker said. “We are converting an existing single route, fixed route, to microtransit, so we’re not cutting anything, we’re changing service over.”
Southeast Vermont Transit has been running a microtransit service in Windsor since 2023, and there have been additional services added in Barre, Manchester, Middlebury and Morrisville.
A 2023 VTrans study found that microtransit routes are not well-suited for all areas.
“Long infrequent routes typically cover significant distances and would require passengers to plan their trip well in advance,” the study found. “The benefits of flexible routing are limited when traveling along routes with limited stops or deviations.”
