Last Friday I had the opportunity to try out the commuter bus line offering return service to downtown Carleton Place that was launched earlier this month. As I wrote in the preview post:
Unlike most commuter bus services in the Ottawa valley, Lanark Community Transit is offering a return service that will allow passengers to go “against the flow” and actually travel to an outlying town in the morning and return later in the afternoon. Other commuter lines typically disgorge their passenger load in downtown Ottawa in the a.m. and park the bus until the afternoon drive home.
I was met in Carleton Place by Gary Strike of the community group behind the bus line, who explained the reasons for the initiative — in his case, monthly gasoline costs of $400.00 dollars — and then I was given an expert tour of the central district by ex-mayor Brian Costello.
As the slideshow above relates there are some real rewards for the visitor; you’ll find a historic town centre that is attractive and well-kept up but clearly exists to serve local needs, unlike several communities just outside the municipal boundary that take dead aim at the tourist dollar.
One wrinkle: the bus driver on the trip home explained that the service could shave five to ten minutes off its service time it if was allowed to use the Parkway stretch of the Transitway from Lincoln Fields to Dominion. OC Transpo is fine with the LCT buses; it’s the NCC that is sitting on the request.
One comment
Good post. As a frequent traveler of highway 7, Carleton Place has always been a lunch stop more than anything else, but it looks like there’s a nice town up there too.
Interestingly, my hometown of Peterborough did the exact same thing with its former rail station after passenger service was lost. It’s a little bit sad, and the irony of getting my driver’s license renewed at an old train station was often hard to avoid. You can see it in Street View here: http://bit.ly/bGGr4e