New year rolls in changes to WRTA station, bus route

By Ashley Luthern

aluthern@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A reconfigured Austintown route and Federal Station improvements are among the changes that await the Western Reserve Transit Authority in 2011.

The altered Austintown route will stop at Rulli Brothers and Walmart in addition to the Austintown Plaza, said Executive Director Jim Ferraro.

“We want to get people from their home and apartment and use it to shop,” Ferraro said.

A few of the buses that run on that route will also be new, thanks to a grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

On Dec. 3, WRTA was notified of the $600,000 award for three “Clean and Green” buses.

The 22-passenger buses, 28 feet long, are fuel-efficient and have the capability of using bio-diesel fuel, said Marianne Vaughn, WRTA director of finance.

She added that the vehicles must be on purchase order before June 2011 and will be reimbursed for the cost through the grant.

Next year bus operators will see a change in the radio system, as it is switched from analog to digital — a process that cost about $750,000, Ferraro said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.