This week’s punishing temperatures didn’t keep Burlington’s transit manager John Andoh from braving the heat to do some community outreach on behalf of the city’s LinkTransit bus system.
On Tuesday afternoon, Andoh (left in photo) found a reasonably shady spot to plug the Burlington-based service beneath one of the bus shelters at LinkTransit’s transfer hub along Worth Street. Joined by Dana Bullock (right) and Richard Ticehurst (center) of Transdev, the company that operates the bus service for Burlington, the city’s transit manager commandeered this location in order to distribute pamphlets and swag to LinkTransit’s passengers as well as chance passersby.
Andoh dubbed this mini street fair a birthday celebration of sorts – although it technically fell more than two weeks after LinkTransit’s anniversary, which the city commemorated on June 6 with a one-day fare-free promotion.
“LinkTransit is eight years old,” Andoh declared with enthusiasm that was undiminished by the delayed festivities, “and we’ve had 840,800 rides in that time – well on our way to a million.”
Tuesday’s event also gave Andoh and his colleagues a chance to showcase one of Link’s new, full-length diesel buses as well as an accompanying “paratransit” vehicle with a complete panoply of features for the disabled. While neither of these vehicles is in service right now, Andoh noted that they and others like them will soon hit the road in lieu of most of the bus system’s old motor fleet.
Among those who took a quick peek at one of the new vehicles on Tuesday was Joshua Baker (next to Bullock in second photo). One of LinkTransit’s regulars, Baker insists that, as sleek as the new buses may be, he’s had no complaints with the system’s traditional conveyances.
“The buses are safe and secure,” he went on to profess, “and the people are helpful and nice.”
