COMET Chat with John Andoh, The Transit Guy
March 26, 2019
By John Andoh
Welcome to COMET Chat! This is a monthly feature where I would give updates on The COMET progress, as the Central Midlands leading mobility manager in moving people in Richland and Lexington Counties.
If you didn’t know, The COMET, also known as the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority is a governmental agency created under State Law. The members that formed The COMET are the Cities of Columbia and Forest Acres, Richland and Lexington Counties as well as the Cities of West Columbia and Cayce and the Town of Springdale. Sixteen Board Members govern The COMET and we have a professional staff of 11 individuals. Buses are operated and maintained by Transdev, a world-wide transit contracting company.
This past winter, The COMET added innovative services to make your ride across the Central Midlands easier. We have started new bus services to Amazon, Nephron in Cayce and Midlands Technical College – Harbison Campus.
We are connecting more bus routes to SuperStops to make bus riding trip time faster. We have new partnerships with Uber and Lyft for trips at night and to the grocery store, with Enterprise for commuters using vanpools and with Blue Bike in downtown Columbia.
The COMET is releasing a request for proposals to purchase two trolley vehicles for use on Soda Cap Connector, the new downtown circulator service connecting downtown Columbia, Main Street District, Five Points, Vista, UofSC, Firefiles games, Allen University, Benedict College and the cities of West Columbia and Cayce’s Riverwalks. Soda Cap Connector has increased in frequency and now operates seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with service until midnight on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays.
We are also pursuing additional bus shelters and a unique solution to bus stop seating throughout the service area. More shelters means more people will be protected from the elements. We have new innovative seats that can be used at bus stops that only have poles. Passengers can attach a seat to the pole.
New Board Members have been added to The COMET Board of Directors in the last three months. The COMET welcomes Mayor Bobby Horton from West Columbia, Councilmember Kevin Reeley from Springdale, B.J. Unthank from Lexington County Delegation and Mayor Geraldine Robinson from Eastover.
It is our goal to make The COMET fast, fun, friendly and frequent and I hope you will give The COMET a try. Reach out directly to me by calling (803) 255-7087 or email [email protected].
For any questions, and additional information, please call (803) 255-7100, email [email protected], visit www.CatchTheCOMET.org or visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Google + and YouTube.
About The COMET
The COMET is a service of the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority and provides countywide public transit services on 38 fixed routes, two ReFlex services, with a vanpool service, subsidy programs with Lyft and Uber, 10 bikeshare stations in Columbia and DART ADA complementary paratransit service throughout Richland and eastern Lexington Counties. The COMET transports approximately 2.8 million passenger trips a year on a fleet of 81 buses and vans. Transit services are provided under contract with Transdev Service, Inc of Lombard, Illinois. For additional The COMET information, please call (803) 255-7100, TDD/TTY: 711 through the relay service, email: [email protected] or visit www.catchthecomet.org. Catch The COMET…We Will Take You There!
