When Buses Need A Push

The Connecticut Fund for The Environment has received a $50,000 grant from the One Region Fund. The funding will go to Transit for Connecticut, a coalition of business, environmental and social service groups that want to improve bus service in the state. WNPR’s Nancy Cohen reports.

Karen Burnaska of Transit For Connecticut says her group will use the year-long grant to continue advocating for increased bus service and new sources of revenue for transit. She says in some areas of the state people can’t get to where they want to go on public busses. And many people don’t even know where the bus stops are.

“There needs to be better marketing and information to the pubic aboiut what bus service does exist... Second of all there needs to be more bus service from region to region, not just within a city. Not just within the city of Bridgeport or the city of Hartford, but to get people from where they live to where they work.”

Burnaska says the biggest single barrier to employment is transportation. And she says by getting people out of their cars and onto busses it reduces air pollution and alleviates congestion on roads.

For WNPR I’m Nancy Cohen.