On-Demand Shuttles Will Be Extended to East Hampton as Suffolk County Revamps Bus Service

Suffolk County will move forward with plans to revamp its bus system, first aired in 2020, that will eliminate two little-used lines serving East Hampton but replace them with an on-demand service similar to one that has been run successfully as a pilot program in eastern Southampton Town.

The 10B and 10C lines would be replaced by shuttle buses that riders can summon by using a telephone app. The 10B follows a loop from Springs to Pantigo Place and back through East Hampton Village with some service to the Bridgehampton Commons shopping center. The 10C runs from the East Hampton train depot to Montauk.

Elsewhere in the county, the new plan aims to beef up service, where demand is heaviest, while eliminating some lightly used routes.

The S92 line, which runs between East Hampton Village and Riverhead and Orient, and usually carries full loads at rush hour, will not be affected by the changes, which were announced by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s office on Tuesday, December 6.

“The administration has reported to us that this is the final plan that will go into effect in October,” said Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, who has served on the transportation working group, a committee that has worked to transform the county’s transit system from a metropolitan model to one that is more responsive to the needs of the county’s less densely populated areas.

“We had no public bus in 2016,” Fleming said of a time when the county cut the 10A route, which ran from Southampton Village to Sag Harbor and back to Southampton via Bridgehampton, but only carried a handful of passengers each day. “Now we have a terrific on-demand service.”

The on-demand service, which basically mimics the route of the old 10A but uses a smaller shuttle bus, was operated as a pilot program, thanks to a state grant. It, like the on-demand service slated for East Hampton, will become a permanent fixture.

The on-demand service is summoned by an app similar to that used to hail an Uber car, with one major difference: the price. While an Uber ride can easily cost upward of $20, the regular bus fare is $2.25. That amount is reduced to $1.25 for students and children, and 75 cents for veterans and senior citizens.

Fleming said many details needed to be worked out for the on-demand system in East Hampton, and she said she would be using the 10 months before it is launched to make sure “it gives the community what it needs.”

She is already planning to seek one improvement to the Southampton on-demand route. “I had hoped they would have included the Bridgehampton Commons,” she said of the area covered by the shuttle buses. She said she would continue to push for that addition.

“We have a very good relationship with the folks in the administration who are doing this work,” Fleming said of the transportation working group, which helped the county obtain $5.5 million in state grant money to improve bus service. “My hope is we will continue to have an impact on how this service is improved.”

She said that the changes to the bus service, when combined with the South Fork Commuter Connection, a localized rail shuttle service during the rush hour that was established thanks to the work of Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., marked the first significant rethinking of public transportation on the East End.