Shelter Island Reporter

Conceptual art depicting the East End Shuttle from the 5TRT website. Creation of a Regional Transit Authority is the first step to changing transportation services to the East End.

What would a Peconic Bay Transportation Authority mean for Shelter Island?

The Town Board will be exploring that question as it decides how to vote on a request from State Senator Ken LaValle to support a bill authorizing a public referendum on the creation of a new Regional Transit Authority (RTA). According to recent proposals on and studies of East End transportation issues, a transit authority's presence on Shelter Island could amount to one small public bus on a fixed route, a demand-based reservation schedule, or a combination of the two.

RTA REFERENDUM

The proposed referendum would be a non-binding vote intended to gauge public support for the creation of an RTA to replace the Metropolitan Transit Authority in the five East End towns. The bill is being amended to include Brookhaven Town as well. Although the towns are being asked to support the bill, the State Legislature must also approve it before it becomes law and authorizes the public referendum. A similar bill has been proposed unsuccessfully in the past; the announcement that the MTA will terminate year-round North Fork train service while continuing to collect an estimated $60 million in taxes from the East End has given renewed impetus to the effort.

The RTA bill is sponsored in the Assembly by Fred Thiele of Sag Harbor and has the support of Democratic East End Assemblyman Marc Alessi as well as Suffolk County Legislator Ed Romaine and U.S. Congressman Tim Bishop. Southold, Southampton, East Hampton and Riverhead town officials have also expressed support for the measure; the Southold Town Board unanimously supported the enactment of the law authorizing the referendum in a vote on February 23. The Shelter Island Town Board will vote on the home rule request after the bill is amended.

Although the referendum does not specify routes and services, those advocating for a new RTA also support a plan to establish a coordinated bus and rail system called the East End Shuttle, proposed by the non-profit group Five Towns Rural Transit or 5TRT. Citizens from each of the East End towns organized 5TRT in 2005 at the end of the SEEDS (Sustainable East End Development Strategies) process, which was initiated by the East End Supervisors and Mayors Association in 1996 and funded in 2001 to build consensus about land use and transportation issues. Patricia Shillingburg of Shelter Island sits on the 5TRT board as treasurer.

According to the 5TRT website, the shuttle network will replace Long Island Rail Road trains and Suffolk County Transit buses on the East End. Shuttle trains will connect at Speonk and Ronkonkoma to LIRR trains destined for stops farther west on Long Island and Manhattan. Benefits of an East End Shuttle system are listed as 1) a reduction in East End traffic congestion; 2) increased transit service, as often as every half hour; 3) a more efficient and affordable transportation system; 4) environmental benefits associated with reduced fuel consumption and pollution; and 5) a single coordinated system as opposed to separate train and bus providers.

VOLPE CENTER REVIEW

The East End Shuttle concept has been reviewed by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation that reviews projects for federal, state and local agencies. The resulting East End Transportation Study issued in September 2009 was supported by the local governments of each of the five East End towns and funded with a $300,000 New York Department of State Shared Municipal Services Incentive Grant. The Town of Southampton acted as lead agency on the grant and on the study it funded.

The study inventoried existing transportation conditions and presented costs, funding mechanisms and institutional alternatives for a "Dual Concept approach to meeting East End transportation needs. East End residents were originally presented with two alternatives for a new shuttle system. Public feedback indicated that the North Fork preferred a system utilizing existing infrastructure with incremental improvements to rail and bus service, while South Fork residents wanted a new coordinated bus-rail system, served by smaller shuttle trains and more stations than those currently used by the LIRR. Ergo, the "dual approach, which will involve frequent and coordinated bus and rail service.

A BUS ON SHELTER ISLAND?

Between the forks and between these two transportation plans lies Shelter Island, which would be served by a small bus. In the two original alternatives, that bus would follow a fixed route primarily from ferry to ferry, or would be a "demand response service, described in the Volpe study as "encompassing a range of service concepts, from door-to-door service by reservation to Ë"flex' routes that operate on a defined route, but with the capacity to make deviations to pick up or drop off passengers. Either approach would require a single vehicle at roughly the same cost. The fixed route proposal calls for ferry-to-ferry runs on a 30-minute schedule during peak times and a flexible schedule during off-peak times.

In a section called "Links between the forks, the Volpe study lists bus routes from Westhampton to Riverhead and the existing S-92 bus as the primary links, with only this parenthetical reference to Shelter Island: "(Depending on the nature of the service, the Shelter Island bus route conceivably could serve this function to some extent as well, linking Greenport with the planned bus routes out of North Haven.)

Schedules are not set in stone and any public transportation here "will be how it works best for Shelter Island, Ms. Shillingburg said during an interview last week. The purpose of a bus on Shelter Island would be to serve the needs of residents, workers and youth. "It's not a tourist bus, she added. Also, Shelter Islanders would have access to more frequent buses at the North Haven and Greenport ferry terminals, buses that connect to trains on the North and South forks.

She noted that the town already has a small bus, for the senior citizen programs, that "just doesn't get used very much.

According to the Volpe report, a new bus would cost approximately $300,000 but Ms. Shillingburg emphasized that "the cost of a bus on Shelter Island is not going to be borne by Shelter Island.

SYSTEM FEASIBILITY AND COSTS

The 5TRT group points to Cape Cod as a model system. Cape Code broke away from the Boston transit system in 1976 to form a new district serving all 15 Cape Cod communities using buses on fixed routes ($2 one way, $6 for a day pass, discounts for seniors), a flexible route ($2 along the route, an extra $2 to stop up to 3/4 miles off route) and an on-demand service (minimum of $3 and an additional 12 cents per mile). The Volpe study also refers to the Cape Cod system as an example of how "flex routes can work.

Operating and maintenance costs of the Dual Concept system for the entire East End are estimated by Volpe at $43.6 million based on hourly service for 14 to18 hours per day, with half-hourly service during morning and afternoon peak periods. Up-front capital improvements would cost $117 million to $148 million. Most infrastructure expenses would be tied to rail service. A Bus Fueling Station/Storage/Call Center would need to be built for an estimated $7 million. No mention is made of kiosks or bus stop shelters in the Volpe study but the East End Shuttle website states that some "enhanced bus stops will have parking facilities and a shelter with benches, but none are planned for Shelter Island, Ms. Shillingburg said.

PROS AND CONS OF A NEW RTA

In addition to infrastructure and service options, Volpe studied the feasibility of establishing a new RTA. "This option has several positive aspects because it gives the East End communities greater control over the transit provided to the region, but it also comes with greater financial and operating risk. According to the Volpe study, the towns would be responsible for up-front capital and operations costs of a new transit authority and would bear the financial risk associated with the volatile revenue sources involved. The East End Shuttle plan calls for a commission made up of representatives from the five towns to oversee the system.

Also, the Volpe study indicates that breaking from the MTA could mean the end of most or all LIRR service to the region or the need for the new RTA to purchase or lease the LIRR rights-of-way at some negotiated value. The overseers of the new RTA would have to decide whether to operate the transit services in-house using their own staff and equipment, or hire a contractor for these services. In general, contracted services are less costly on a per vehicle-hour basis, particularly in areas with restrictive union work rules and generous public sector pay and benefits, as concluded in the Volpe study.