Transit moving forward, looking at Glacier trips

In the sixth year of operations for North Central Montana Transit, the buses are seeing more business than ever.

Jim Lyons, the director of NCMT, said the system serves more than 2,000 people a month.

They started with two yellow buses in 2009 and exceeded capacity in the first day, Lyons said. Their aim was 100 to 300 passengers a month, and they have expanded multiple times since that first day in order to keep up with demand.

Lyons said that this summer, they will be maintaining their usual routes through Havre and to Fort Belknap, Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and Great Falls. One change to their schedule is they will be making stops at the new Bullhook Clinic building on 5th Avenue.

Come June, they will be reopening the summer Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line routes, he said, adding that the service is looking into expanding the in-town routes.

In the bus barns' fleet, there are three 23-passenger buses, a 16-passenger sprinter, the Fort Belknap service's 16-passenger sprinter.

"And then we have this beautiful new bus that we just put into service that holds 37, and we've been using it quite a bit," Lyons said, adding that this is because they are exceeding capacity in their other smaller buses.

Every bus under the flag of NCMT is thoroughly inspected by the Department of Transportation and they have never had a problem in them, Lyons said.

So far, the transit has given almost 115,000 rides to Havreites and local residents since its creation.

"We're obviously very proud of that," Lyons said.

Lyons is looking into new ideas for the transit as well as keeping up current operations. He is looking at how feasible a bus route to Glacier National Park would be and said he hopes he can get some feedback from the community as to any suggestions and also to gauge how much people would use such a service.

They would require reservations and there will be stops along the Hi-Line on the way, along Highway 2.

"It would be nice to hear community input on whether that would be valuable or not," Lyons said.

Anyone who would like to speak to the idea can call Lyons at 265-4762 or email him at [email protected].

He said carrying bicycles on the buses -six were donate by the Havre Police Department for the transit's use -allows another venture in which people use the bikes for free after signing a waiver. They have various types of bicycles and are looking into acquiring more. People coming to Havre on the bus may rent the bikes for continued transportation in town.

He said the idea came when tourists came to town and asked about ways to get around town besides cars and inquired about bicycle rentals.

"Today being Earth Day, we thought it would be appropriate to announce the bikes," he said Wednesday, adding that they use biodiesel with their vehicles.

"Public transportation works on the Hi-Line and the demands just continue to grow," Lyons said.

For bus route information, visit http://www.ncmtransit.org/routes.html.