Warren woman wants busing in Trumbull County

By Ed Runyan | January 23, 2014 at 12:05a.m.

WARREN

Janet Hazlette of Warren remembers the 1960s, when she and her classmates rode Warren’s public bus to school, when adults used it to get to work, when housewives used it because the family had only one car.

Today, she sees the Warren Express, a public bus run by the Western Reserve Transit Authority — which runs from Federal Station in Youngstown to Warren and back again six times per day — giving an option to people who similarly don’t have their own car.

Times changed between the 1960s and today: There was an explosion of automobile use that peaked 30 years ago, when most people of driving age had access to a car and Warren’s buses stopped running.

But in recent years, the need for public transportation seems to be on the upswing again, she said during recent presentations to the Trumbull County commissioners and Warren City Council.

She cites statistics from the WRTA showing that over the past two years, ridership on the Warren Express route, which runs between downtown Youngstown and Warren’s south end, has increased 27 percent — from 38,960 riders in 2012 to 49,616 in 2013.

She thinks government officials need to consider that and “rethink busing in this area” as an economic-development tool.

“I think the increase in ridership parallels an increase in employment,” Hazlette said of the county’s unemployment rate. She thinks more people are using the bus to get to work, to places such as West Corp. in Niles, which is along the route.

Owning a car and paying for car insurance has gotten too expensive for many people today, Hazlette said. Also, Trumbull County has an aging population that includes a large segment of people that may not want to drive anymore, she said.

Jim Ferraro, WRTA executive director, said he believes the Warren Express serves a lot of people living in the high rises west of downtown Warren and in apartment complexes such as Highland Terrace on the south end.

Ferraro said he thinks a lot of people from Warren’s west side use the bus to travel to Niles to shop in the U.S. Route 422 commercial area.

The Warren Express was started in September 2011 with a federal Job Access Reverse Commute grant that pays much of the cost. The grant money has a couple of years left, Ferraro said.

Though the route has one of the highest riderships of the 28 run by the WRTA, fees paid by the riders pay only a fraction of the cost. “It’s not meant to be self-supporting,” Ferraro said.

It costs $325,000 annually to operate the Warren Express. Fares paid by riders — between $1.25 per rider and free — totaled $35,448 in 2013, Hazlette said.

Riders can catch a ride on the Warren Express anywhere along its route, which is from Federal Station to Route 422 through Girard, McKinley Heights and the Eastwood Mall area of Niles, into Warren and then onto East Market Street near ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, onto Courthouse Square and continuing west and south before making its return trip from the Highland Terrace apartments.

Its first run of the day leaves Federal Station at 6:40 a.m., and it continues every two hours until 4:40 p.m.