Shuttle plans on track for White Plains

It is a rubber-tired replica rather than the old-fashioned electric-line “trolley” that enthusiastic city officials call it, but White Plains is on track to launch a downtown shuttle service a year or more down the road.

If realized, the project would end nearly four decades of stalled plans and failed operations for similar short-distance transit ventures in the city.

City officials are reviewing a report on shuttle service alternatives prepared by Urbitran Associates Inc. of Manhattan. Common Council members in June approved the city”™s application for $250,000 in federal funds toward the purchase of a hybrid electric-diesel bus, the first in a four-vehicle fleet recommended by the city”™s consultant.

That project funding was secured in 2005 by Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-18th District. City officials also plan to apply for an additional $200,000 obtained by the congresswoman in the 2007-”™08 federal budget to develop an implementation plan for the downtown service.

That planning, which requires input from county, state and federal officials, could delay the start of the service for another year, city officials said.

As residential development continues in the downtown area, “The delay might represent some advantage in that when we do finally implement the shuttle, we”™ll have the ridership to support it,” city Commissioner of Traffic Thomas Soyk told the Common Council.

The shuttle study team said similar projects around the nation indicate that ridership of at least 10 to 15 passengers per hour is “realistic.” While many of those shuttles serve office commuters alone, the White Plains program is expected to draw more midday riders in the core downtown shopping and business district as well as a large commuter market in the morning and afternoon peak periods.

Consultants recommended three shuttle loops to be operated by a private contractor. Two routes would run weekdays during peak periods and focus on neighborhood connections and access between the Metro-North Railroad station and downtown. A third route would allow fast midday and Saturday transit through the core downtown area, linking municipal and private office buildings with shopping and dining destinations such as City Center, Galleria and Westchester Mall. Shuttles would operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays.

A 50-cent base fare and 25-cent fare for senior-citizens and disabled persons would be low enough to encourage use of the shuttle while generating some revenue to offset operating costs, consultants said. A fare-free service would leave the city ineligible for matching State Transit Operating Assistance funds, which could provide an estimated $92,000 annually for the shuttle programs said.

The city could also reap revenue from the business community by offering employee shuttle passes paid for by individual employers. The study team also suggested that fares for the downtown shuttle loops could be incorporated into a reduced-rate UniTicket plan already offered to rail commuters by Metro-North.

For the shuttle program to catch on with downtown riders, service must be frequent enough to attract casual riders, consultants stressed. Like trolleys of old, the vehicles must be a “mobile advertisement” easily identified by potential users, they said, whether through “an eye-catching paint scheme, an elaborate bus wrap or a vehicle type not typically seen in the area.”

An electrically-powered Shoppers Shuttle, one of several previous failed or proposed-but-never-tried experiments in White Plains shuttle service, had just such an eye-catching exterior when it made its debut in 1995. It broke down on the first day of operation, consultants noted. When a traditional transit bus took its place, ridership suffered. The underused service was discontinued the following year.

Now, however, “I think this is an idea whose time has come,” Common Council member Benjamin Boykin told his elected colleagues when putting the shuttle project on track for federal funding. “We”™ve got to implement this as expeditiously as possible.”

Mayor Joseph M. Delfino, with whom Boykin and other council members have clashed in recent months over the rapid pace and secretive process ofÂ downtown commercial development projects pushed by the mayor, took credit for the shuttle initiative and tendered the councilman a moving offer of peace of sorts. “I pray to God sometime we ride that trolley together,” Delfino told Boykin.

“We will,” Boykin assured the mayor. “I”™ll pay for the ride.”