CT: New London SmartRide advocates look to repurpose state grant

With no new state money on the table, the best option to keep the city’s door-to-destination SmartRide service intact beyond a July 31 expiration date is to convince transportation officials to be flexible with a pilot program grant, Mayor Michael Passero said Tuesday.

Passero’s comment came after a Southeast Area Transit District Board of Directors workshop at the Norwich headquarters of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments attended virtually by Benjamin T. Limmer, bureau chief for the state Department of Transportation's Bureau of Public Transportation.

The two-hour meeting was convened after board members last week began brainstorming ways to fund the New London microtransit program after learning the federal pandemic relief funding that covered its $750,000 annual cost had been spent. The board last week approved using $75,000 in SEAT funding to keep the service, which was set to end on June 31, active until the end of July.

Any lingering hopes that the state might subsidize the program were quickly dashed by Limmer.

“We cannot take on any additional subsidies to continue an $800,000-a-year-program,” he said.

Passero has been pushing for a top-to-bottom revaluation of the transit system in New London in the hopes of decreasing the three fixed-bus routes serving the city in favor of a more expansive microtransit option. But any such change would require formal studies and public hearings, both of which would not be complete before SmartRide ends.

“We missed an opportunity these last three years to work to re-adjust the budget to address this,” Passero said.

The board, like they did earlier this month, bandied around a host of possible short-term solutions, including reaching out to Connecticut College, Yale New Haven Health, Hartford HealthCare and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to help pay for operations. Other proposals included shrinking service hours and coverage, as well as raising the $1.75 ride charge.

But the board agreed that re-purposing a new state pilot grant might be its best hope. That plan calls for taking a $1 million grant set to pay for a new evening microtransit program and expanding that service's hours, originally set for 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., to essentially replicate the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. SmartRide hours.

“That’s our best option right now,” Passero said. “It would buy us time to get those studies and hearing done.”

But that plan would also turn a two-year grant into one only with enough funding for maybe eight months. And it would require DOT approval, which is not assured.

Limmer at one point during the meeting noted the night-time service grant was awarded only after undergoing a strict application process that laid out its uses.

The board agreed to bring the program expansion idea to the DOT for discussion.

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