Many of you may have seen the bus called the Brunswick Explorer. I will relate my $1 ride. There were three other passengers when I boarded and on the entire circuit no one else got on. Talking with the driver I found out there are three buses to cover the routes, one in East Brunswick, the other West Brunswick. They take about an hour to make each circuit and each makes eight circuits per day. They have room for three wheelchairs and about 15 passengers. Each driver makes $13 per hour and is allowed to work only three days per week so the company does not have to pay benefits. Using manufacturer’s data, one finds they cost about $60,000 each and will cost about $5,700 per year to operate.
Based on an eight-year life and the cost of ownership, operation and maintenance, the annual cost to provide this service is about $650,000.
If you do the mathematics it will show that there are not enough seats on these buses that if they were full each and every circuit, each and every day and each and every week of the eight years, they would not break even. To top it off, the geniuses who decided this was a good thing are considering adding Saturday to the service.
If you think this bus service is a waste of your money, wait until the Downeaster train service starts. That will be waste big-time.
Fred Blanchard
Brunswick
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