COTA touts 5-year service plan

The Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority’s Saipan Fixed Flex Route and Paratransit Systems plan will come at a reasonable cost through its five-year service plan.
The service plan that was studied by Transit Consulting Network back in 2013 was developed as a start-up service plan, including an expansion plan based on the estimated ridership growth and the building of a higher level of service.

The service plan will ensure that proper rolling stock and technologies are in place; there is core service between Garapan and the south end of Saipan, which all other routes would be timed to meet; service growth occurs when demands meet the policy framework; Call-a-Ride hours of service will mirror that of the fixed flex-route service at a minimum; and seven community buses will be needed.

According to information on the service plan, Route 1, which is the Garapan-Saipan-South, would be the core service that all other routes must be built upon through timed transfers. The core service will be the most frequent service, must be reliable, and comfortable for quick transfers. It is supposedly designed to be the most productive, most effective, and most efficient route in the network.

The route network will be launched as different routes that will take different buses.

-Route 1 will be from Garapan to the south, which will be a fixed flex-route bus.

-Route 2 will be from As Matuis to Garapan, which will be a fixed flex-route bus.

-Route 3 will be from Kagman to Garapan with a smaller bus.

-Route 4 will be from Kagman to Dandan to the Northern Marianas College.

-Route 5 will be from Navy Hill to Garapan, which will be interlined with Route 3.

The Call-A-Ride paratransit service is presently the island’s only public transit service and will continue to be so until the fixed-flex route transit begins. It will continue as the mobility option for people who are unable to use the fixed-flex route service due to a disability.

The system will provide buses 13 hours a day from Monday through Saturday from 6am to 7pm.

A feeder service from As Matuis, Navy Hill, Kagman, and Dandan will be provided sometime at least during the peak periods and for two hours during the mid-day off-peak period, Monday through Saturday.

The bus route system will first be launched on Saipan and eventually on Tinian and Rota.