CATS rolled out its new bus route system last month as a part of an overall effort to modernize Baton Rouge’s answer for mass transit.
The new systems includes 19 route changes, 10 new routes and five new hubs.
CEO Bob Mirabito is calling the improvements in routing, hubs and technology “The New CATS,” and he is looking ahead to the possibility of providing bus rapid transit along the Nicholson Drive corridor between LSU and downtown.
“We want to support the mayor in his effort to put a tram between LSU and downtown,” Mirabito said. “A BRT would be a short-term solution for servicing the area that would use the same amenities that the tram needs.”
A BRT is an enhanced bus system that combines the capacity and speed of a light rail with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system.
The city’s new master plan FuturEBR calls for the development of a streetcar along Nicholson Drive that would link LSU with the planned Water Campus, River District and downtown, but a BRT could act as a stepping stone for the tram.
The tram is projected to be about five years away and cost around $100 million dollars to complete. The BRT would be a cheaper, quicker solution that would give the city a head start on developing the infrastructure that the tram would use, Mirabito said.
“We have about $1.8 million in grant money from the Federal Transit Administration to establish a BRT in Baton Rouge,” Mirabito said. “Why not utilize that to move the BRT and the tram forward?”
Across campus, Highland Road is CATS’ second-largest route and in the past has also been the second worst route for on-time performance. The BRT and tram would help alleviate some of the congestion, the CEO said.
Mirabito is looking for more ways than just the BRT to service the LSU area: he expects that the technological improvements to the buses will allow CATS to respond when LSU bids out its bus services in the future.
“We would like to have the business,” Mirabito said. “One concern was that we didn’t have a mobile app, but now we do. We have GPS, too. We are in a much better position today to respond to the bid.”
“We want to support the mayor in his effort to put a tram between LSU and downtown.”