WRTA to restart Youngstown-Warren bus route Monday

By Ashley Luthern

aluthern@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Western Reserve Transit Authority will begin a new route from Youngstown to Warren on Monday.

The route is funded by a one-time $574,052 Job

Access Reverse Commute grant from the Federal Transit Authority, said Marianne Vaughn, secretary-treasurer and finance director.

“The money is specifically to operate the service, so whatever it takes to operate it” whether that’s equipment cost, maintenance or personnel, she said.

Vaughn said WRTA applied for the grant in June and

received approval Aug. 1.

WRTA Director of Transportation Tom Nugen said the new route will begin from Federal Station at 6:40 a.m. Monday and run from that

location every other hour.

The route will travel near the Eastwood Mall, Warren’s Courthouse Square, Trumbull Memorial Hospital and a housing development on Lane Avenue, Nugen said.

Nugen said WRTA last ran a route to Warren about five years ago.

The route ended when “we ran into a little bit of a funding crunch, and again that money was a grant that had expired and we continued to run it for almost two years,” he said.

The Warren route was the transit authority’s third most popular in ridership, Nugen added, which is why officials wanted it back.

Another WRTA change riders will notice Monday is the elimination of the West Boardman Loop service.

“The ridership just doesn’t justify it,” Nugen said.

The West Boardman loop covers the same area as the East Boardman Loop so riders still will be able to get to the same locations, which include Walmart, the Shops at Boardman Park, St.

Elizabeth Health Center in Boardman, Assumption Village, AHEPA Apartments and the Southern Park Mall, he said.

WRTA had two Boardman loops so that riders on each side of U.S. Route 224 and other busy roads could avoid crossing the street to catch the bus, Nugen said.

For more information about WRTA bus routes visit WRTAonline.com.