Well, the old Christiansburg
Two-Town Trolley has continued to roll along. Arriving at the end of the line, riders still have no shelters or sidewalks or even a bench.
The new service is expected to start in about a month. What do citizens know about it? The
town's website points to a link on
Blacksburg Transit's (BT) website, and neither yet provide information about hours of operation or fares.
An anticipated start date is synched up for both the winter retail season with the
Shoppers Express, and getting to local government offices via the D
owntown Loop in time to pay annual tax bills. Then there's the
Go Anywhere service that must be scheduled at least 24 hours ahead of pick up times, and drops riders at undefined community locations.
As presented, a rider from the Christiansburg Bluffs Apartments would ride three routes to get to the mall area.
Tentative stops may or may not be convenient -- for example, there's no stop at the Town Square in the county seat and it's uncertain if the mall route will drop people at the curb of a street or at store entrances. Will people hike across acres of parking lots, especially during the craziness seen during holiday shopping and when the weather may not be pleasant?
At the conclusion of the
Oct. 6 town council meeting, the manager mentioned a meeting with BT expected for the following day.
The fees charged, even with a transfer that may take Christiansburg riders on in to Blacksburg, and times of service will make or break this service. As an example, students who attend NRCC at the mall cannot currently utilize any BT service for morning classes whether they reside in Blacksburg or Christiansburg.
Typically, any new product or service arrives with a
tremendous marketing campaign to get the word out. What's being offered, and what will it cost? Why you need it, why you want to use it. How to hook up -- that kind of stuff, to
create awareness and then demand. And, typically, any new business is in a critical stage for the first 36 months as a reputation and customer base is developed.
Since there's already been
tremendous federal and local investment, it seems time to start pushing many of these finer details out to citizens. Questions? Call 540.961.1185 or any Christiansburg Town Council member.