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File photo in September 2014 folder
Old trolley stop file
Heather Leiphart | News Herald file photo
Passengers enter a Bay Town Trolley at City Hall in Panama City last year.
PANAMA CITY — An overhauled website for the Bay Town Trolley service is expected to be up and running by the end of this week, officials said.
The site, baytowntrolley.org, has been down since June 30.
The chairman of the Bay County Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) sent an email last week to an official with the trolley operator and West Florida Regional Planning Council demanding the website be up and running in 15 days.
“I think we have been more than patient when it comes to the website, and it’s time to get it done,” the email from Rodney Friend stated. “I am not sure where we are in the process, but we need a working website within 15 days or less. Even if it’s not the full version of the website, we need something in place ASAP for residents to go to and see the routes available to them.”
The website went down June 30 after a contract with the previous trolley operator expired. That baytowntrolley.org content was copyrighted and licensed to Santa Ynez Valley Transportation Services. On July 1, First Transit took over operations of the local trolley service, but that company is not involved in launching the site, only evaluating its content.
“On behalf of the Bay County Transportation Planning Organization, First Transit is working closely with the West Florida Regional Planning Council and the marketing communications firm it has retained to create an updated Bay Town Trolley website,” Stephanie A. Creech, manager of corporate communications for First Transit, said in an emailed statement. “First Transit is fully committed to the review process and to providing appropriate feedback, with particular regard to routing and scheduling, as each section of the website is completed and submitted for our review. All partners are working together to ensure that the Bay Town Trolley website is operational by the Oct. 18 deadline.”
The West Florida Regional Planning Council, working on behalf of the TPO, has retained a marketing company, BowStern, to develop the site.
Brandi Whitehurst, a spokeswoman for the council, said she is confident the site will be up and running by the end of the week. “We’re trying to get a bunch of eyeballs [on the site] to make sure it’s perfect,” she said.
One reason for the delay, officials said, was securing the domain name. The domain name for the prior site was property of Santa Ynez Valley Transportation Services; it is now the property of the TPO.
Whitehurst said the new website should be much improved from the previous site.
“I know there was a great deal of information involved in this making sure details are correct, all route maps are correct,” Whitehurst said. “There has been a lot of fact-checking with route locations. It’s my understanding that it will be a lot more interactive than the previous site, a total redo.”
Friend said Monday that he understands the factors that led to the delay in the site being relaunched, but it’s time one is available so riders can at least see the routes online.
Friend said BowStern does a good job developing websites.
“We’ve just been waiting a long time, and I understand it’s … going to be really nice and interactive, and I have complete confidence in BowStern,” Friend said. “They’ve done really good work over the years and they are familiar with this.”