Mass Transit - 19

SporTran
three historical properties located
east of its Intermodal Terminal,
which it plans to renovate to include a food court, transit mall,
a training facility, a technology
and planning center, an employee wellness center and an Amtrak
platform for potential future passenger rail service.
"A lot of funding is in place to
make this happen," said Washing-

Dinero'
Washington was
recognized as
a 2019 Mass
Transit 40 Under
40 honoree. To
read more about
what made him
stand out, visit
MassTransitmag.
com/21093100

SPORTRAN CHANGED every bus
route in the city for the first
time in 25 years.

"One of things we've done in the past five

years is get out in the community and hear from
riders [about] what they actually need and what
they want and then use that feedback to push
technology, build facilities and do service upgrades."

-DINERO' WASHINGTON, chief executive officer
of Shreveport Transit Management, Inc.
(SporTran)

the ADA service and to take that
market and those vehicles and try
to do this new, on-demand-type
service, I believe people are going
to say 'well, that's the ADA van.'
We will be rebranding the paratransit service and mixing this
on-demand service with it to be
more effective and more efficient,"
said Washington.
SporTran is also working
on its next facility project: the
Multi-Modal Transit Resource
Center. The agency purchased

ton. "We're designing the facility
now and will hopefully be in construction in about two and a half
to three months."
The new Multi-Modal Resource
Center will also house SporTran's
Autonomous & Light Duty Maintenance Facility. Yes, autonomous
vehicles will be part of SporTran's
network in the near term.
SporTran's Intermodal Terminal sits right outside the
downtown core and Washington notes there are several

choice districts around the terminal where autonomous vehicles would be a good mobility
option. The Shreveport area has
seven riverboat casinos and a
vibrant entertainment district
that are close geographically,
but not connected. The autonomous connector will change that
and should be ready for launch
this year, but Washington does
not want to give a specific date
until he knows SporTran and its
vendors can deliver the service.
"We want to be innovative and
it is definitely a fun project," said
Washington.
SporTran has a lot of development and a lot of excitement
building around the agency, but
when asked about the future,
for Washington, it comes back
around to the community.
"I get most excited about two
things, from two different sides.
I get excited more about the current riders who have more access
to opportunities and a better
quality of life. [It's] not taking
forever to ride a bus and some of
those resources that are spread
throughout the city are now in
smaller offices right there in our
Multi-Modal Resource Center,"
said Washington.
"But I also get excited about
the technology that's being added and the things that we're doing to bring on new riders who
are not normally transit riders,"
he said. "You may not ride the
bus all the time because you have
a vehicle, but you're now using
the bus to take an autonomous
vehicle in our parkway to different casinos or you're using us
for last-mile transportation to
get to where you're trying to be.
The more we grow the system,
the more we provide opportunities to improve the quality of
life for the people who are in
our Shreveport-Bossier market,
I think the better off not only
my life will be, but I'm fulfilling
the mission that I'm put here to
do."

FEBRUARY 2020 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit |

http://www.MassTransitmag.com/21093100 http://www.MassTransitmag.com

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