Bus Service To The Austintown Horse Race Track

[Towntalk]

QUESTION:

What kind of payoff will Youngstown get from the Devil's den of sin and perdition?

[Towntalk]

Precious few Youngstowners would qualify for Limo comp trips, and to be perfectly honest, they ain't go no business playin' the slots or the poneys anyway. Better they spent their pennies on more important stuff like food and proper cloths for their kids and a fit roof over their heads in a crime free environment. Just lookin at the crowd that signed up for those casino cards, they looked like they bought their cloths at one of the Salvation Army thrift stores. The people that chase after the ponies, cards and slots are livin' a fools dream. So says ME, so says I.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj4nJ1YEAp4

[jay]

Take a limo to the casino.  Lose your money.  Take a WRTA bus back to Youngstown.

[Towntalk]

Well, the racino is open for business ... I say that a local limo company could make a fancy buck by setting up a VIP Limo Service that would be tied in with the Racino and an Austentown hotel and based at WRTA's Federal Street Station. I say that reservations for VIP's would be made through the hotel or the Racino. This service would be available to BIG SPENDER VIP's only while the little cheap spenders could hop onto a "toonerville trolly" to be hauled out to the Racino at a fare of $5.00 per person one way via WRTA. I say that Independent Taxi could make a pritty penny carting folks out to the casino in a small mini bus from their office on West Federal Street at $10.00 a person. Now that's a plan that I could live with.

[mrniles266]

 

Did anybody check out the Human transit site? I haven't heard anything.

[Towntalk]

I agree with Allan. Open the track/casion first ... have the existing bus routes include this stop on their normal schedule until it can be determined what the ridership would be, and go from there. We gripe now about busses running empty on existing routes, and we would whine even louder if a special bus was designated for the racino and it was running empty half the time.
The FACT OF THE MATTER is that WE nor the WRTA knows what kind of demand there will be for bus service to the racino ... we are speculating without having ABSOLUTE figures in front of us.
There is no question that WRTA will be looking into the matter from a sound business standpoint, so how about letting them do what they are paid to do since none of us here are experts in running a mass transet system myself included.

[AllanY2525]

I think they should let the race track open first, send buses from the closest existing route at first,
see how much demand is there - with regard to both head counts, and desired destinations, for
a trial period.

Once it's established that adding new route(s) and more buses is warranted, they could always
expand service later.  A "pilot route", as it were.

Good point, Jay.......

[jay]

The WRTA is considering extending bus service to the new race track.

[Towntalk]

Wouldn't it make more sence to wait until WRTA sees what kind of demand there would be for a bus line just to the racino, and in the meantime have the Austintown bus that is already operational go past the racino as part of its normal trip schedule?

[mrniles266]

 
Mass transit people: do a search of" Human transit". A lot of good information on basic route planning. The latest ideas for big or small cities are frequent service lines. The big cities, service at least every 15 minutes. That means even  more frequent than that. For a smaller area like ours, 30 minute service would be better than 60 minutes or more. This can make using the bus more useful.  They like to "through route" a route at an end of a line, to continue on as another line. For short routes, as with the Northside, I have suggested simple ideas to have the Northside routes as a group and how they should work together. More later. Please comment.

[iwasthere]

They must establish nite time Sat service and Ltd. Sun services before they run the gambling Rt

[jay]

The WRTA is considering establishing bus service to the Austintown Race Track.