There was a good news/bad news element to the results of a new survey regarding the Westport Transit District”™s bus service connecting the area with its Metro-North train stations.
According to a Westport Now report, 94 percent of the survey”™s 1,500 respondents that used the buses said they were strongly or moderately satisfied with the service, with half of them choosing to take the buses rather than using their parking spots at the Saugatuck and Green”™s Farms stations.
But that was the good news. The bad news: only 23 percent of the overall survey response admitted they were aware that a bus service existed, with 42 percent expressing surprise to learn that there was a service. The commuters that declined to use the service complained in the survey that the bus stops were not easily accessible to their homes, that the service schedules lacked flexibility, and that it was ultimately faster and easier to drive to and from the stations than to wait for the buses.
Martin Fox, co-chairman of the WTD, stated that his agency needs to do a better job in raising awareness of the bus service. “Marketing, we think, is an issue, but there are many other issues that come out of this, and we need a plan,” said Fox last night in a Westport Town Hall meeting when the report was unveiled.
