Estuary Transit District Implements Ecolane Technology to Enhance Public Transportation

Estuary Transit District needed a solution that could schedule both demand response and route deviation vehicles in the same software package. Their requirements included AVL, fully automated scheduling as well as dispatching and data communication.

Estuary Transit District (ETD), located in Centerbrook, CT, was formed in 1981 by the nine towns of the Connecticut River Estuary Region to provide local, coordinated public transportation for residents of the Old Saybrook, CT area. ETD, DBA 9 Town Transit, operates 4 flexible routes (fixed stops with route deviations) and ten vehicles total throughout the region with transfer corridors to New Haven, New London and Middletown. ETD provides up to 90 trips per day, not including walk-ons on the flexible routes. Transit or Dial-A-Ride service is also available in all nine towns on a limited schedule Monday through Friday. ETD is managed by First Transit, a nationally recognized, Cincinnati-based management company. Estuary Transit District was named CTAA’s Rural Transit System of the Year for 2011. The CTAA cited ETD’s expansion of service for customers and the deployment of the comprehensive Ecolane technology solution as the main reasons for the award.