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Coastal transit agency asks Strafford County for roughly $88,600 to support Route 33 and paratransit service
Summary
Regional transit agency Toast reported rising ridership and requested county support to maintain Route 33 and complementary ADA paratransit services; speaker said Route 33 carried more than 24,000 riders last year.
Rad Nichols, executive director of the regional transit nonprofit Toast, told the subcommittee the agency seeks county support (documented as $88,656 in the materials provided) for Route 33 and complementary paratransit service.
Nichols said systemwide ridership rose about 29% in the last year and that Toast carried 373,940 riders across the system last year; Route 33 carried 24,261 riders in the prior year, a 44.4% increase. Nichols said the agency now operates at roughly 95% of pre‑pandemic fixed‑route ridership and that demand‑response services for older adults and people with disabilities have also rebounded.
Route 33 runs between the county complex and downtown Dover with hourly frequencies Monday–Friday (less frequent Saturday service). Toast provides ADA complementary paratransit within a mile‑and‑a‑half corridor of the route; paratransit fares are twice the fixed‑route fare and fixed‑route fares are $1.50 (reduced fare 75¢ for qualifying riders). The agency also said it will receive a material state operating increase this year (roughly $390,000) and that local county funding supports Route 33 operations and regional coordination activities.
Nichols described capital and staffing reserves: Toast reported about $3.2 million in reserves, mostly federal emergency-relief funding from the COVID period, and a projected operating deficit for the current year of about $350,000 that Toast intends to manage. He said reserves are earmarked for capital purchases like buses and for cash‑flow if federal funding is delayed.
Committee members asked about fare payment options, frequency as a ridership driver, real‑time tracking and the agency’s integration with Google Maps; Nichols said Toast’s schedules appear in mapping services and the agency is implementing an electronic fare payment system.
The subcommittee did not take a separate vote on the transit request during the presentation; the item will be included in the committee’s compiled recommendation.
