The Putnam Examiner

Putnam Transportation Task Force Seeks Resident Input

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Putnam COunty SealPutnam County Transportation Task Force is looking to revise the mass transportation system in Putnam County for the first time in 30 years, but it need the input of the community.

“We want to know the needs of the community,” said the task force chairman Vincent Tamagna. “There is no need for us to be going through this exercise if you don’t need it.”

The task force has a survey that it is asking residents to fill out on the county website.

Currently over 30 percent of Putnam’s population is does not have access to public transportation. There are no bus routes in all of Philipstown and Putnam Valley. Limited service is available within Southeast and Kent.

For the areas that do have bus routes, a lack of efficiency is considered a root to the lack of participation.
“It take two hours to do a full bus loop,” said Tamagna. “People are saying that they are not going to spend three hours waiting for a bus.”

The current system costs the county $2.5 million a year and serves less than one percent of the population.

“We need to advertise it and on it,” Tamagna said as a way to make the bus more cost effective.

The task force will also be looking into the para-transit system as well as the transportation needs of the early intervention and preschool students.

The survey can be found at putnamcountyny.com/transportationsurvey.

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