A Warren resident wants the WRTA to expand bus service throughout the City of Warren, Ohio. This citizen has even prepared sample bus routes and is lining up additional support in the Warren area.
Do they have support for a Trumbull County sales tax, or some other way to pay for it?
5 will get you 10 that they expect Mahoning County to foot the bill. This is not a new thing, it goes way back and each time it went nowhere. All talk, no action.
The person was not willing to share the plan at this time. Warren, or any other community, does not have to have a tax levy to establish bus service. The community could contract for a limited amount of service using alternative funding sources.
My friend, where does any community get the monies it spends? Is it not true that all the revinue that any governmental body receives comes frow the people? Can the city of Warren print it's own money? No. Do they manufacture anything? No. In the final analysis the money comes from taxes, or fees for services. So where would those "alternative funding sources" come from?
Maybe people, businesses and organizations that would benefit from the service would be willing to kick in some cash to provide the city's share of the money needed for any contracted service.
We have individuals in Youngstown who have purchased monthly bus passes for people in need.
Now I'll buy that my friend who has yet not wished me a happy birthday.
Most public transit entities operate at a loss - which is why they require huge subsidies from
city and county governments in order to have enough money to even operate. WRTA would
need to get a serious financial commitment to service the entire city of Warren.
A thorough public survey to determine if there is adequate demand/rider ship would also
need to be done.
Has the city of Warren made any efforts to provide their own bus service? Has it approached
It's OWN county government about this? Warren IS the county seat for Trumbull County(?)
It would be far more cost effective to have a bus depot right there in Warren than it would be
for the buses to come all the way from Youngstown.
I guess by saying that many people are "willing" to contribute, we don't know how many "many"
actually is....and "willing" is not a commitment - sounds more like the "honor system".
Don't put the horse before the cart as Allan has well stated. We don't even know what the actual realtime daily paid ridership would be. And why doesn't Warren have it's own bus company? My home town of 8000 has it's own bus service, and it always had it, yet here's Warren, the largest city in Trumbull County, and the County Seat with no public transportation system. Think about it for a moment. There must have been a very reasonable reason why buses stopped running in Warren.
So a handfull of people want WRTA to start providing regular bus service in Warren, and that is the only conclusion that we can come to since there is no need for people in Youngstown to travel to Warren.
WRTA has on a number of occasions considered bus service to Eastwood Mall, but on each occasion came to the conclusion that it was not financially profitable, so it's high time that we put this issue to bed, until such time as Trumbull County people decide to organize their own bus system separate and apart from WRTA,financed by Trumbull County people.
By the way, in the past there were ballot issues in Trumbull County to fund public transportation and they were defeated by Trumbull County voters.
Many social service agencies already have transportation vans. Perhaps each agency could donate a portion of their vehicle's time to servicing a route within Warren that would connect with the existing 39-Warren Express WRTA bus route.
Examples of Transportation Vans
(http://fairhaven-ma.gov/pages/FairhavenMA_COA/0100C717-000F8513.0/van.jpg)
(http://www.airporttransportationdfw.com/turtletop01.jpg)
:)
Exactly. I am not an expert. Just interested. It seems there has to be a Public- Private partnership of some kind. We have a lot of of agencies, or even businesses that can get involved. They could even have naming rights to vehicles. Covelli is a good example. The 39W Warren Express, and a 39Y Youngstown Express, (that is a simple change, to explain in which direction the bus is going). This could be one of one of many Regional routes that run through Trumbull and Mahoning counties. The local Warren routes would feed the 39 Expresses. Safe Park and Ride lots are needed in Warren. Kent State,Trumbull, TCTC needs to be served. Present Highland route makes the route longer. But it picks up people. The same could be for all of Warren. An Express bus, is not a Express bus, if it has to go everywhere. What do you think?
And who would pay for the cost of doing this?
Easter Seals for example in some communities has such vans as you have illustrated, but could they afford to "donate" theuse of those vans to running regular bus routes when they are not in use for Easter Seals business?
WRTA's special services buses might be an example of how some independent company ... lets say a Taxi Cab service might operate, but since service organizations operate under strict rules, I don't even think that they would be allowed to use their equipment for things that are not directly related to what their organization exists for ... Easter Seals ... Red Cross ... etc.
I thought that WRTA serviced only Mahoning County. They don't do that very well, can't wait to see what'll happen when they add a service for Warren. ::)
URGENT TO MrNiles...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHdcKAheUDE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHdcKAheUDE)
Has there been any thought given to Niles and Warren setting up a transportation consortium?
Current reports and maps
http://www.eastgatecog.org/Portals/Eastgate/Uploaded_Documents/TransportationPlanning/Data%20Center/Library/TIP%20FY2014-2017.pdf (http://www.eastgatecog.org/Portals/Eastgate/Uploaded_Documents/TransportationPlanning/Data%20Center/Library/TIP%20FY2014-2017.pdf)
http://www.eastgatecog.org/Portals/Eastgate/Uploaded_Documents/TransportationPlanning/TransitPlanning/Transportation%20Survey.pdf (http://www.eastgatecog.org/Portals/Eastgate/Uploaded_Documents/TransportationPlanning/TransitPlanning/Transportation%20Survey.pdf)
http://eastgate.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=7fd6629f0ae246e5b11083f12561be05 (http://eastgate.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=7fd6629f0ae246e5b11083f12561be05)