MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - CATA presented their plan for a bus rapid transit system (BRT) to the Township Board earlier this month.

The project was proposed due to over crowding on bus route 1. On average this route makes over 6,000 trips a day. CATA feels that the bus rapid transit project will solve this problem.

This bus will travel from the capitol building to the Marsh Road area, and route 1's stops will reduce from 45 stops to 28 when the new bus is added. there will be other changes made as well.

"Currently customers board the vehicle through the front door and pay their fair when they board. In this case all the fair payment will happen at the station and stations would be elevated by 18 inches," said Assistant Executive Director of CATA, Debby Alexander

Another new component will be that all bikes will be boarded on the wall of the bus rather than outside the bus to reduce loading time. When this project is complete loading time is expected to reduce for 5 minutes to under a minute.

In some areas of the route for the new project there will be bus lanes, and areas where no left turns can me made. The township board was concerned about how this will affect businesses as well as frequent bikers.

CATA plans to address these concerns at the next planning stage of the project.