Ridership up despite lower federal funds

November ridership increased 6 percent from last year.
By KANTELE FRANKO
VINDICATOR staff writer
YOUNGSTOWN -- Despite having decreased state funding and being forced to share more federal funds with other local divisions, the Western Reserve Transit Authority expects to have security cameras installed in each of its 41 buses by the end of February.
The project is expected to cost about $310,150.
The success of the surveillance systems on seven new buses purchased in February 2004 prompted the board's decision to have a Denver-based company install cameras for the whole fleet, executive director James Ferraro said at a Thursday meeting of the WRTA's Board of Trustees. The systems cost $6,550 each.
The executive director said he had no new information to report on federal funding, which remains relatively constant, and state funding, which has been severely cut in recent years.
Declining funding
The Ohio Public Transit Association reports that state funding for public transit has declined from $43.35 million in 2001 to an expected $16.35 million in 2006.
Ferraro also told board members he expects to meet with transit authorities from Niles and Mercer, Pa., within the next month to discuss the strains of sharing limited amounts of federal funding, but he did not specify what the amount of that funding might be.
Ferraro said during his monthly report that November ridership was up 6 percent from 132,435 in 2004 to 139,848 this year. The single-largest increase came in the adult age group, as WRTA transported 6,860 more adults than last year.
The student ridership category also showed an increase of about 5 percent, but the number of senior citizens riding was down by about 20 people.
In other business, board members discussed and unanimously passed a resolution authorizing Ferraro to solicit proposals for companies to produce the advertising on authority busses, as transit authorities in Columbus and Toledo do.
Such a move will not affect advertising contracts for the first four months of 2006 that are expected to provide more than $20,000 in revenue for WRTA, Ferraro said.
The board also unanimously passed a resolution to give nonunion employees a 4 percent raise, which will cost the authority an additional $23,000.