By KERI CHAMPION

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE- The River Parishes Transit Authority is finalizing arrangements to connect St. John the Baptist and St. Charles Parishes through a system of several shuttle buses that will transport passengers from their homes and places of business.

&#8220The bus system will be a curb-to-curb service. That means that the buses cannot leave the public right of way, but they can still go into residential areas. The buses are narrow and small so they will be able to maneuver the residential streets easily,” said Martha Cazaubon, a senior planner for South Central Planning and Zoning Commission. Cazaubon is one of the engineers involved in bringing the transit system to the two parishes.

&#8220The shuttle system will have time transfer points in each parish to change buses when needed and during peak hours there will be six buses running on four zones,” she said.

There will be a zone on both the East and West Bank of St. John and St. Charles Parishes.

&#8220The buses will be in operation all day long, and during high traffic times we are hoping to establish additional links at designated locations in places to make travel easier going across the river,” Cazaubon said.

&#8220Currently the LA-Swift Line is being operated to help people get between Baton Rouge and New Orleans with a stop in LaPlace. The La-Swift line is scheduled to end at the end of March, but if it is extended then we would set up a transfer point with the La-Swift lines stop on the interstate. If not then we will have a transfer point set up in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans to link the two cities,” she said.

&#8220At one point we were talking about having a link in both the Jefferson and New Orleans areas, but that was several years ago and we are currently hoping to reestablish communication with the bus lines to get link access to those lines,” she said.

&#8220We expect to see a ridership of about 200 people, but it won’t happen all at once. We expect the interest and use of the system to increase over time. We are budgeting about $1.2 million in revenues in the first year, including FEMA recovery money, state transportation and transit grants, and money from fares and contracts for services for companies with clientele that will use the transit system,” Cazaubon said.

&#8220The operating budget is also estimated to be about $1.25 million. Both St. Charles and St. John Parishes have committed to $125,000 each and the St. Charles United Way has committed $150,000 to the project, in addition to the other $451,000 in grants we have applied for. The cost for the seven buses we plan to buy is $455,000,” she said.

Service to St. James Parish is also part of the plan, but will be provided through a transfer point link at the welcome centerto the parish. From the transfer point, riders will use the St. James Transit System that is already in place there.

&#8220The St. James system has already proven successful and there will be no need to upgrade or improve upon it. It will become integrated with the new system,” she said.