In METRO's Business Briefs, we include the latest from partnerships from Via, Stantec, ETA Transit Systems, and The Routing Company.

Napa Valley, Stantec Open New Bus Ops, Maintenance Facility

California's Napa Valley Transportation Authority (NVTA) opened a new bus operations and maintenance facility for their expanding transit fleet to meet the community’s transportation needs and achieve 100% zero emission bus service by 2040. Stantec provided programming, master planning, architecture, and interior design for the 31,500-square-foot, three-structure facility comprised of an operations, maintenance, and vehicle wash buildings for about 80 transit vehicles.

The operations building houses dispatch, training, and amenities for operators and provides much-needed meeting and collaboration space for employees.

Designed for employee comfort, the design optimizes daylight with clerestory windows which allow daylight to flow deep into the buildings. The six-bay maintenance building offers natural ventilation and daylight to all working spaces to support employee health and well-being. The maintenance building has also been designed to accommodate future fuel-cell electric buses, making the new facility as resilient as possible to adopt both types of zero-emission buses currently available.

Routing Co., Waco Transit Launch On-Demand Service

The Routing Company (TRC) celebrated Waco Transit System’s (WTS) successful launch of an on-demand service — powered by TRC’s Ride Pingo app — in Texas.

The service operates under the name Micro Dash and serves the South Hewitt, Central, and Northcrest areas with a total of six vehicles.

The on-demand Micro Dash service is the first phase of WTS’s three-phase launch. A later phase aims to commingle paratransit with Micro Dash in the City of Waco using TRC’s Pingo Access. The third phase, planned for the fall, will incorporate TRC’s Pingo Rural™ across McLennan County.

Pingo Rural is a package to supercharge rural transit with on-demand and commingled service optimized for rural deployments.

ETA Transit, Via Upgrade Public Transit in South Dakota

ETA Transit Systems and Via partnered to upgrade the Sioux Area Metro (SAM) public transit network in Sioux Falls, S.D.

In a mere four weeks, ETA deployed a state-of-the-art 26-bus fixed-route ITS project. More impressively, ETA demonstrated their dedication by completing the bus installation in one week during the December 2023 holiday season.

The collaboration between ETA Transit and Via is allowing the City of Sioux Falls to achieve its vision of creating a stronger public transportation ecosystem. Since the partnership commenced in early January, the SAM bus network has already seen steady ridership growth, and passengers have enjoyed disruption-free service — a feat in the face of South Dakota’s often challenging winter weather.