FAYETTEVILLE -- Ozark Regional Transit will keep rural Washington County bus service after funding was restored by the Quorum Court last week, but it's going to look a lot different.
"What we're going to do is dissolve the fixed route as we know it, but we're still going to provide services to those areas in a demand-response model," said Joel Gardner, executive director. "The demand-response model is the service that requires the individual to go ahead and schedule their trips. They can set up subscription service if they're going to work or going to college. If they know they're going on a regular basis, we can add them to the schedule."
The Washington County Quorum Court voted Nov. 14 to defund Route 620. The move essentially would have killed the route serving West Fork, Greenland, Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln. Justices of the peace who voted to cut funding said the public transit provider had failed to meet ridership expectations. Those Quorum Court members complained about empty buses, and several wanted to put the money in the county road fund instead.
The Quorum Court subsequently allocated $122,970, the same amount as last year, to regional transit for this year. A requirement of providing the money was that Ozark Regional Transit would make changes to the route to make it more efficient.
The aim of the route, which started about two years ago, is to connect rural residents to larger cities. It has run five times a day during the week from 6:15 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. and represents about 2 percent of Ozark Regional Transit's total ridership.
The new service will run from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and riders will need to call regional transit 24 hours in advance to schedule a trip. Repeat trips can be scheduled up to two weeks at a time. Service will be first-come, first-served based on space and availability.
Gardner said the vehicles will be smaller than buses used now on the route, but should still carry four or five passengers. The cost will go up from $1.50 to $2.50 per one-way trip, Gardner said.
Metro on 03/24/2017