Case Study: Estuary Transit District achieves 100% increase in rides-per-hour and 40% ridership growth with Ecolane scheduling & dispatch solution

Estuary Transit District - Customer Case Study

Estuary Transit District (ETD), dba 9 Town Transit, is a nine-town public transportation provider based in Centerbrook, CT operating flexible route deviations and demand-response services. ETD needed a single software platform to schedule both demand-response and route-deviation vehicles with AVL, fully automated scheduling, dispatching and reliable data communications, and engaged Ecolane to deliver a comprehensive technology solution.

Ecolane deployed its DRT automatic scheduling and dispatching software, MDTs with AVL and real-time manifests, fixed-route/route-deviation modules, self-service reservations and SMS arrival alerts. The implementation doubled rides per hour on DRT vehicles, boosted ridership 40% with no increase in fleet size, provided 100% GPS-verified stop arrival/departure data, enabled real-time reporting and interactive trip histories, expanded web self-booking use, and eliminated driver early-arrival complaints — improvements ETD attributes directly to Ecolane.

Estuary Transit District

Joe Comerford

Executive Director