“Mr. Gleszer, your transportation to the coast will leave at nine o’clock,” advised the greeter, after consulting the printout on her clipboard. “Please make yourself comfortable in the waiting room and I’ll let you know when it’s time to leave.”
Stepping from the bright sun and oppressive heat and humidity, I was hit by a blast of refreshing cold air as I entered the softly lit, attractively furnished room. I found a chair and waited, giving a quick glance around the small space. There was a scattering of fellow travelers, waiting to continue their trips. Some watched television while others chatted about the usual things: their families, their health and where they were going to have lunch when they got to their destination.
All quiet, but with a sense of tentativeness. Just a momentary stop and then a continuation of their travels. As I thought of my own trip that had started only three-quarters of an hour earlier, a hand touched my shoulder and a voice quietly told me I could board. The wait was over – in less than an hour I’d be at my destination: Gulf Shores.
And it was to be a fun little trip – courtesy of BRATS. (Baldwin Rural Area Transportation System). Riding BRATS may lack the panache of a flight to Marrakech or the adventure of touring Tibet, but it is a pretty good way to get around lower Baldwin. It’s responsive: I called up a day ahead and booked a trip from my front door in Fairhope to the far reaches of Gulf Shores and then back home – no problem (and right on time, too). It’s inexpensive (especially if compared to a premium gas swilling SUV): just five bucks, round trip. And friendly: Drivers welcomed passengers by name, helped them with packages and, when needed, used the built-in lift to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers.
The only bothersome thing that my late morning and early afternoon trip revealed was the lack of riders. There were only two of us from Fairhope to BRATS Central in Robertsdale and just five as we headed south toward Gulf Shores. By the time we cleared Foley, I was it. On the return, I started alone and arrived with three fellow travelers. We did pick up a couple of riders along the way who got off short of the terminal – one for a doctor’s appointment in Foley and the other for lunch in Robertsdale. Door-to-door service, by-name greeting and confirmation of their next pickup by BRATS for both.
I expressed concern over mostly empty buses wasting resources as they cruise around the county to BRATS Director Taylor Rider. He filled me in on the operation – turned out I was traveling during the “quiet time.” Peaks are early mornings and late afternoons on weekdays when BRATS carries busloads of workers from where they live in the middle of the county to their jobs in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.
These buses start in Bay Minette and follow Highway 59 to the beaches. Called the “Condo Route” and “Fast Food Express” these names tell the story of our labor-short local economy. BRATS provides a social and economic service in getting workers who can’t afford to live where they work and often don’t have cars, to their jobs.
But that is only one type of service BRATS provides to the county residents and visitors, Director Rider noted. There is an on-call local service operating along the Eastern Shore and the Central and South Baldwin cities. This is a great service for almost anyone needing to get around town: pickup at your door on your schedule – no walking to a bus stop to catch the bus when it comes by – and delivery to your destination, with stops en route if you desire. And home again when you’re ready. You can get all this personal service for as little as just two dollars – a real bargain. But more important it gives mobility to people who can’t drive themselves for whatever reason.
Another BRATS offering is the service I used: on-call longer distance trips that operate on a regular schedule. Gathering passengers at BRATS Central creating larger groups bound for a common destination on a single bus, increases revenue miles, while liberal use of on-board radios helps accommodate almost any requirement of the riding public.
This flexibility and real commitment to keeping the riders happy is what makes the system work – providing responsive and affordable service. Fixed schedules burn up money during slow times so BRATS avoids that kind of service, but they are considering new scheduled service from Baldwin County to downtown Mobile – not a sure thing but seriously looking into it.
The cost of operating bus service is covered by three sources – roughly equal shares, with one third each coming from the passengers, the county and the Federal government. Given the need to be frugal and provide service as cost-effectively as possible, there is no weekend operation except for special events, and there is constant scrambling to shift buses and passengers around to keep the buses as full as possible.
And getting BRATS more riders is the reason for this column: to make local folks aware of this often ignored service in our midst. BRATS is doing great work and sure could use more customers. If nothing I have described seems to apply to you or gets you a little interested, think about our crowded streets and highways, how hard it is to find a parking space anywhere near where you want to go and all that fuel you use in getting there.
Think about all this and then give BRATS a call: (251) 937-0355.
Contact Pete Gleszer at jubilee@lagniappemobile.com.
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