Escambia County Area Transit on the road to a new facility, new vehicles. Here's the plan
The wheels on the bus will still go 'round and 'round at Escambia County Area Transit (ECAT), but some of them will be on much smaller vehicles and eventually all the vehicles, big and small, will roll into a new facility.
Escambia County plans to relocate ECAT from its current location at the Rosa L. Parks Transit Complex on W. Fairfield Dr., to a new facility that would be built on county-owned land about a mile away, in the vicinity of Clarinda Lane, between Pace Boulevard and Palafox in Brent.
Escambia County Administrator Wes Moreno said the county has received a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which allocated funding to support long-term recovery efforts after Hurricane Sally through the Florida Department of Commerce Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program.
Moreno says the county qualified for the grant in part because the current ECAT facility is prone to flooding and a new, modern facility is needed to help house and maintain the county's changing fleet of vehicles.
'The (current) facility needs a lot of work,' Moreno said. 'It's not as conducive to modern transit as it was back in the day. We are moving into microtransit, smaller-type vehicles and we need to be more equipped to work on and maintain some of those vehicles as we move into a new look and a new business model.'
There is no timeline for the relocation, but county leaders say they're working to make it happen as soon as possible.
In the meantime, they want to prepare for the transition by acquiring more land in the proposed area of the new facility.
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At their next meeting on May 1, the board of county commissioners is being asked to authorize staff to start the due diligence process required for acquisition of properties identified as potential locations for ECAT's relocation.
Escambia County District 3 Commissioner Lumon May, who represents the area where ECAT is located and where it's proposed to move, supports the idea.
He wants to ensure the new facility is in a location that is convenient for riders who most rely on it.
'I think the transportation is critical and we need to expand it,' May said. 'I'm fully in support of it. Hopefully we can move it sooner than later.'
On April 1, Escambia County launched FlexTransit, a Microtransit Pilot Program that is an on-demand service utilizing smaller, ADA-compliant vehicles equipped with air-conditioning and wi-fi service that hold nine people.
Riders can make an appointment and schedule a time to be picked up at a stop on the county's bus route by calling ECAT, or using ECAT's website.
Moreno says the county has nine microtransit vehicles in use so far and 13 more are on the way.
He says the smaller vehicles require less fuel, less maintenance and less expensive tires than the larger buses that have traditionally provided transportation.
The program also enables the county to expand transportation to previously unserved or underserved neighborhoods.
The county says Flextransit is not intended to replace the larger buses as they will still be in use, but bus transportation is changing overall and the old depot and maintenance facility is outdated.
'It's a pilot program right now, but it seems to be working out well,' Moreno said. 'We're getting loaded down with calls and people are starting to take advantage of the service. We won't need such a large maintenance facility anymore now that we're moving to smaller vehicles.'
Currently, the pilot program is only available to existing ECAT paratransit customers, those with disabilities or are elderly and cannot use regular fixed-route public transportation.
The county says microtransit will be launched to the public in fall 2025. Once fully implemented, all county riders will have access to FlexTransit services, which will combine with ECAT's fixed route to most efficiently get them to their destination.
Moreno said other changes include using hybrid and electric vehicles as part of ECAT's fleet.
He said the county has applied for a grant for electric buses, which would mean charging stations at the new facility.
The county's goal is to create better and more efficient travel options for riders while keeping down costs.
No final decision has been made on what will become of the current facility once a new one is built, but Moreno said the county is considering tearing it down and removing the asphalt to help with flooding and drainage in the area.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: ECAT relocating to new facility, getting microtransit vehicles
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