Upper Bucks County’s ongoing manufacturing and healthcare boom has a downside: employees commutes. Public transportation, virtually absent from the region, may be the answer, reported Peg Quann for The Bucks County Courier Times. 

At the behest of the Bucks County Planning Commission, the County Commissioners launched a formal study of the current status of commuters. Its results will inform future steps. 

This much is clear: Existing SEPTA routes — surface or rail — are not the solution. 

Trains end at Colmar and Lansdale. Bus route 132, the only one serving Upper Bucks, ends at Telford. 

Cost, as always, is a concern. Fares are seldom enough to cover all public transit expenses. 

Employer sentiment about the service is, however, strong. 

“As a business owner there is all sorts of reasons to improve the system and for me the biggest one is bringing employees in from Allentown and Bethlehem,” said Brian Benner of the Warren Weiss Insurance Agency, Quakertown. 

“More and more people want to use some form of public transportation to get to work. Improving the flow of people into and out of any area improves commerce and the local economy for everyone,” Benner concluded. 

More on the transportation needs of Upper Bucks County is in the Bucks County Courier Times.