News Post

Last month, Vista's Discover students embarked on an educational transportation outing. The students rode the Metro-North Railroad, the River Valley Transit Clinton Trolley, and the River Valley Transit Bus. For many people in the Vista community, public transportation is vital for getting to work, visiting friends, and exploring the shoreline. We tagged along for the ride and got some great photos of the outing!

The Ticket Collector punches the student's tickets

First, the students boarded the train and had their tickets punched by the ticket collector. It was a short ride to the Clinton train station where everyone disembarked and headed downtown for lunch at Grand Apizza in Clinton. The students grabbed some delicious pizza and salad. After lunch the students boarded the Clinton Trolley for a scenic ride down the CT shoreline. The Clinton Trolley service is provided by River Valley Transit at no charge in the summer.
 

Discover student Nikita posing with the Clinton Trolley

The last mode of transportation for the day was the River Valley Transit bus. The students utilize these bus routes often, and many of them were familiar with our driver. We spoke to Joseph Comerford, Executive Director at River Valley Transit (RVT), about their relationship with Vista.

“There's just so many ways that Vista students and members use our services,” Mr. Comerford told us. “For many of them it's their only means of transportation. It helps provide access to work opportunities, social opportunities. programming, shopping, and just every facet of life. So, we really understand how critical our services are to Vista students and members, it allows them to live more independently.”
 

The students board the RVT bus in Clinton

Mr. Comerford also told us about how Vista has helped expand RVT services. “We've had a very close partnership with Vista, a big reason we were able to add Sunday bus service is because Will Goble (Director of the Discover Program) helped get students and members to provide comments when we proposed it. The Department of Transportation funded it in a large part because we were able to demonstrate the need, which again comes from Vista members saying how much Sunday service was needed.”

Our staff and students had a great time on their transportation outing, and we hope you all learned a little more about about how important it is to have transit options available to our community. Thanks to Metro-North and River Valley Transit for providing these services and always being so welcoming!

Until next time...