BRADFORD, Vt. — Tri-Valley Transit has opened its new $3.6 million bus depot bheind the Bradford Park-and-Ride and is expecting the facility to be busy as demand from commuters grows once the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
The Upper Vally Community Transportation Center on Route 25, near the Interstate 91 interchange in Bradford, opened last month and is home to eight buses run by TVT, the nonprofit that in the Upper Valley used to be known as Stagecoach Transportation.
The “net zero” facility includes bays for parking buses overnight, an automated bus wash, and low-flow plumbing.
TVT spokesman Mike Reiderer said ridership on commuter routes from the Bradford and Randolph areas to major employment centers in Lebanon and Hanover has been increasing, albeit with temporary declines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The growth in the Upper Valley is tremendous. That commuter route (along Interstate 91) is one of our stronger routes. That’s been growing every year,” Reiderer said.
“We’re looking at about 25,000 rides in 2019” in the Upper Valley, Reiderer said. TVT “did trim back” during the pandemic, canceling its mid-day River Route bus and now running its Circulator route upon passenger request. But its other commuter routes “have been up to just about full service for about a year now,” he said.
TVT is holding a ribbon-cutting “grand opening” at the Bradford depot, open to the public, Wednesday at 1 p.m.
The depot includes bathroom facilities for drivers and a small conference room that could be used for drivers and small-scale community events, he said. However, it is not a waiting room for passengers, who rely on a shelter at the Park-and-Ride, or can wait in their cars, until their bus arrives.
The facility includes solar panels and a “butterfly-shaped roof” which captures snowmelt and rainwater, TVT said in a news release.
Plans to install an electric heating and cooling system were scrapped when the equipment wasn’t available, Reiderer said, “so we converted over to a wood-pellet boiler heater.”
But TVT also increased the number of solar panels on the building and are now feeding electricity back into the grid, which he said would help supply TVT facilities in Randolph and Middlebury.
In addition, TVT has won a grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation to acquire four electric buses, two of which will be stationed in Randolph, perhaps as early as July 2022.
Reiderer said TVT officials are not yet sure how far they will be able to travel in between charges.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 60 3-727-3217.