LEONARDTOWN, Md. — On March 11, the Commissioners of St. Mary’s County voted unanimously to approve an FY 2026 grant application for the Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T) to be submitted to the Maryland Transit Administration for final approval. The grant will fund some notable changes to the St. Mary’s County transit system.
Three new bus shelters are planned to be set up by the Great Mills Pool, the Great Mills Library, and the U-Haul near Westbury, all of which are along Great Mills Road. Originally, the DPW&T had planned to construct 11 new bus shelters, but they ran into issues with landowners, including Target and Walmart, refusing to allow the construction of new bus shelters on their property. Commissioner Mike Hewitt expressed particular concern about a lack of shelters in Leonardtown and along Route 5.
“I’ve seen people just out in the rain, waiting on a bus,” Hewitt said.
There will be two more bus stops, but they will be built by the St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation through a private contractor, not the DPW&T.
The new bus stations are part of a larger effort to transition St. Mary’s County away from relying on flag stops and toward bus stations. While there are only three new bus stations, 122 bus stop signs are going to be put up, 96 of which have already been completed. However, the county will never fully transition from flag stops due to their importance in rural areas. Without flag stops, residents in rural areas would have to walk miles to the nearest bus stop.
St. Mary’s County also plans to make its transit system fare-free for all residents. Charles and Calvert counties have already implemented similar plans with some success, as ridership has increased significantly. This will, of course, deprive the county of the revenue collected from bus fares, but Maryland now provides state transit grants to fare-free public transit systems. Funding is based largely on ridership, so the increase in ridership that would likely come with instituting a fare-free public transit system could potentially bring in more money than the county would lose. There would also be no need to fund updates to the fare system, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The grant would involve $3,000,586 in funding from the state and $1,000,004 from the county.
The SSTAP program will also see an expansion in its operations. SSTAP is a transportation program for the elderly and persons with disabilities in Maryland who are not sufficiently close to public transportation routes. Currently, the system operates two days a week from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., which can force riders to choose between a doctor’s appointment and going to the grocery store. If the grant is approved by the MTA, SSTAP will operate Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., regardless of where riders live in the county.
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please keep in mind about VanGo in charles, it has holidays in which it stops early, or doesn’t have rides at all. All the shuttles have different stopping times, so you have to know schedules.