FACT to expand services
Beginning July 1, Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation will extend fixed route service to the southern and northern reaches of the county as well as sites in between. George Hardy, FACT general manager, said with the extended service, FACT will cover 80 percent of the county. He said it will be a “dramatic increase of the current service area.” The expanded sites include the municipalities of Point Marion, Masontown, Fairchance, Smithfield and Perryopolis.
The addition of the new routes, along with some minor adjustments in the current routes, will bring the number of fixed bus routes up to eight. They are: Route 119 Corridor Route; Uniontown Circle Route/Farmington; Route 51/Perryopolis; Brownsville-Uniontown Express; Brownsville-Republic-Uniontown Route; Fairchance Route; Point Marion/Smithfield Route and Masontown Route.
At a public hearing Friday in Uniontown to gain input on the route expansion, operations manager Gary Stafford said the new routes will make it possible for riders to leave home as early as 5:45 a.m. and travel to every part of Fayette County for medical appointments, shopping and work and return home as late as 7 p.m.
“It gives people a great deal of mobility,” Stafford said.
The fixed routes are open to the public and are handled by eight 28-passenger trans shuttles. Registered senior citizens ride free at off-peak times, as do children under 12 with an adult. Also, college students with identification can ride at half price. A typical ride costs $1.50. All of the buses are handicapped accessible.
Although the Uniontown hearing was very sparsely attended, Hardy said previous public hearings in Smithfield and Perryopolis drew larger crowds. “They seem to be truly excited about having transportation,” he said.
Hardy couldn’t specifically say how many riders use the service, but Stafford said over half the daily runs from Uniontown to Brownsville are filled to capacity. The main transfer point for FACT is the Greyhound station in Uniontown.
Future plans include setting up bus-stop looking shelters marked with the FACT logo. Some of the routes, including Connellsville and Brownsville to Uniontown, will have start times of 5:45 a.m. and will end at 7 p.m.
Hardy explained that for the next two fiscal years, FACT intends to file for federal transit administration funding in the amount of $7,115,390 for operating and capital projects. He said that amount translates into $5,326,912 from the federal transit administration and $1,788,478 from the state and local government. Hardy said the county will reserve 50 percent of its operating assistance grants for capital projects.
In addition to extending the number of fixed routes, plans are under way for FACT to construct a new $3 million ground transit center on 4.3 acres at the Connellsville Airport.
The facility will include a 20,000-square-foot main terminal and a separate 180-by-60-foot bus garage/maintenance facility. Hardy said the transit programs within the county have continued to grow at a rate of 9 to 12 percent per year, which will facilitate the need for additional staff.
Since most of the current carriers don’t provide their own maintenance, FACT will require that all vehicles purchased by the county must be worked on at the central facility.
Other projects include purchasing new computer hardware and transportation software; purchasing replacement vehicles and constructing a fueling station.
Michelle Grant Shumar, head of the department of Human and Community Services and FACT, said that what began as a coordinated transportation demonstration project, has evolved into a full-fledged federally approved transit system. She said the evolution of FACT marks a first for a transit organization in Pennsylvania to go from a demonstration model to federally approved status. The county transit system started demonstration status in September 2000.
Shumar explained that the input from the five public hearings will be compiled and a final public hearing will be held later this month to finalize the new routes. At that meeting, the new bus schedules will be available.
She said that although the public has expressed an interest in getting the new routes, people have to go out and ride the buses because they won’t continue running if they are empty.
“We have to get the word out for people to ride the buses,” Shumar said.
FACT also provides a shared-ride system, a medical assistance transportation program, special event transportation and a volunteer escort program. For more information, call 724-430-4600 or 1-800-321-RIDE.