The Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) in New York state recently announced a new 132-vehicle, five-year contract with The Routing Company (TRC) for on-demand transit. RGRTA provides public transportation services in an eight-county area in and around Rochester, New York, delivering more than 10 million rides per year.
This new contract is part of the initiative called the One Transit operating model, which aims to seamless integrate deviated routes with on-demand services to create a truly unified transit system. It will provide weekday demand-responsive transit service – including on-demand (microtransit) – and deviated route service. Pre-booking will also be available to riders.
“We have been focused on improving the convenience, accessibility, scheduling and tracking, and overall customer experience of the public transit service we provide, and we are happy that we found a partner in TRC that can deliver on all those elements,” said Miguel Velázquez, CEO of RGRTA. “We look forward to piloting on-demand service in some of the more rural areas we serve, and leveraging TRC’s 24/7 support to ensure our customers have more access to more of the critical destinations they need to reach each day.”
Service is expected to start in late 2024. Plans are in place to expand transit access in rural areas – where many residents are transit-dependent – along with digitizing and modernizing the rural transit operation and providing more consistent delivery of service.
RGRTA states that it partnered with TRC to enhance its operational efficiency, improve fleet management, leverage comprehensive data insights and analysis, and gain real-time tracking and monitoring capabilities.
“Our partnership with RGRTA is focused on innovating, enhancing, and improving the transit experience in rural upstate areas,” said James Cox, chief executive officer, TRC. “Together, we’re aiming to alleviate car dependency and eliminate transit deserts, to allow every person to fully participate in activities across the community as part of daily life. The best part is that in addition to improving quality of life, we’re helping RGRTA dramatically improve the return on investment for its existing assets – its fleet and its people – while increasing the convenience of moving people.”