It's been more than a year since WRTA cut night and weekend bus service for Valley residents. Monday night, that service was restored.
WRTA Executive Director Jim Ferraro tells us, "Prior to the cut, we actually saw ridership grow seven or eight straight years. It was something that we were pleased with, and then we had to pull the plug."
Now that plug is back in place, as six night routes and Saturday bus service make a return to the Mahoning Valley. The additional routes are thanks to two grants, totaling nearly $750,000 that the WRTA received. When the first buses rolled out of Federal Station just after 7:00pm Monday night, about fifteen people were ready to head out.
This is just the first step in expansion for the WRTA. Voters in Mahoning County passed a one quarter percent sales tax last November. That money should start coming in around July. Ferraro added, "We'd like to stretch these grants through most of this year, and part of next year, and then as sales tax starts to trickle in, we'll have a little bit of a head start on where we want to go in the rest of the county."
WRTA hopes to expand service to all of Mahoning County by September.
