As debate continues over whether the Merrimack Valley will ever get passenger rail service, Concord’s public transit connection to Boston, as well as the North Country and New York City, continues to roll along, eyeing possible changes in its sister service.
“Concord to Boston is definitely the trunk of the tree for us,” said Benjamin Blunt, vice president of Concord Coach Lines, which has operated inter-city buses here since 1967. “Traffic has gone up. Boston has experienced a pretty good period of growth since the recession, both to downtown Boston and Logan Airport.”
As a private firm, Concord Coach doesn’t release traffic figures. Blunt said the company operates 47 buses, which includes the company’s operations in Maine, which have more total traffic than the New Hampshire runs. Six of the buses used on a high-end direct service to New York have 30 seats, while the rest have 51.
The company’s Concord presence is most notable in its terminal on Stickney Avenue. The parking lot was expanded last summer, adding more than 150 spots, but it still fills up sometimes, particularly during school vacation weeks when people leave their cars for days at a time.
“We’re starting to think now, with April school vacation, whether we’re going to need to valet cars over there. It would be very different if you were to go to that lot in August,” Blunt said.
The terminal is owned by the state, and down the road its size or location may have to change based on possible expansion of Interstate 93, or even the city’s proposed extension of Storrs Street nearby.
As for the company’s future, Blunt points to a few reasons for optimism, including the huge Woodmont Commons development coming to Exit 4 of I-93 in Londonderry and the move of General Electric’s headquarters to Boston, which should combine to increase the number of north-south commuters. There’s also increasing use at Logan Airport as airlines consolidate into hub-and-spoke systems at major airports, but not necessarily a big increase in people driving themselves there: “We are the beneficiary of the exorbitant parking fees in Boston,” he said.
Direct service to New York City on more luxurious buses, with larger seats and even snack service, has been a success, he said. It’s part of the industry’s push to separate itself from an older, grubby image of inter-city buses. These days, for example, virtually all inter-city buses include free Wi-Fi.
Then there’s Boston Express, a separate but overlapping service that shares ownership with Concord Coach. Since 2007, it has, like Concord Coach, run buses up and down Route 3 and I-93 to Logan Airport and Boston’s South Station, although it does not travel farther north than downtown Manchester.
The buses and terminals used by Boston Express are owned by the state but operated by Concord Coach’s sister company under state contract funded largely by federal highway money. The service was established in 2007 to ease traffic down to Boston on these two congested highways. (This has long been a sore point at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, which objects to subsidizing bus service taking people to its nearest major competitor.)
The creation of Boston Express was triggered by the soon-to-start widening of I-93, as well as an acknowledgement via the establishment of the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority that passenger rail would not operate along the Merrimack River anytime soon.
Now, with the I-93 expansion nearing completion and the Boston Express state contract up for renewal at the end of the year, Blunt said the future status of the service is being considered.
“Everybody’s trying to figure out what the right play is for Boston Express to keep the service. We’re trying to get creative in ways that we can accomplish that,” Blunt said.
One option that Concord Coach is discussing is to take over the state-owned bus terminal at exits 5 and 2 on I-93, with an eye toward reducing or eliminating the need to subsidize their operation, perhaps by charging for parking.
Concord Coach has submitted this idea as one of several applications in the Department of Transportation’s Public-Private Parternship solicitations for the year. “It’s just something to talk about, at the moment,” Blunt said.
Concord Coach might also consider taking over operations of Boston Express, perhaps changing some runs.
“At 2 in the afternoon, Boston Express is paying to have a bus leave (Manchester), Concord Coach is paying to have a bus leave Concord at 2 o’clock. Is that necessary? Is there enough demand in the corridor?” Blunt asked rhetorically.
One thing that has no plan to change is Concord Coach’s service north, including runs to Berlin and to Littleton – communities that have very limited public transportation options.
These runs are subsidized under a Federal Transit Administration program for rural inter-city transportation.
“They’re a pretty small slice of our overall pie, but guarantee us a certain amount of revenue on North Country service year-round, so there are still mobility options for people north of Concord,” Blunt said.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
