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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two additional options are now being put on the table at the Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority as part of its ongoing discussion regarding alterations to 11 routes among other operational changes as way to cut $1.3 million from its budget.

After receiving a large number of public comments regarding the route changes, the board at KRT met Thursday morning to discuss the three options and to start softly launching them out to the community to see which might work best.

KRT Executive Director Sean Hill said that instead of cutting the 11 routes out completely, which include South Hills, Tyler Mountain and Elkview, they plan to cut them back instead as a way to create more passenger-friendly options.

However, he said there will be more discussion on the matter.

Sean Hill

“It’s the first time our board has talked about all three potential options and gotten a chance to speak their mind and ask some questions and it looks like it’s leading to further questions that a committee is going to potentially address,” Hill said.

All three options will utilize an on-demand online transit service known as KRTplus.

Hill said on August 26 they plan to launch the on-demand transit across three zones– Charleston’s East End, West Side and South Hills. He said they will see how it works there and then gradually begin to expand it to include other zones.

The transit service essentially will operate like any kind of ride-sharing service such as Uber or Lyft where a KRT vehicle will pick up passengers from their homes and transport them to the nearest fixed bus route while still paying the $1.50 service fee.

Hill said incorporating the transit service into KRT’s operations for the routes that are lower in-demand they are attempting to cut back is expected to save the company over $1 million.

He said cutting back services to cut down the budget has been on the table for quite some time now.

“Our team has spent a tremendous amount of time talking about this, since October of 2022 this concept of how do we do more with the same or essentially less when your year-end revenue doesn’t go as far as it did,” he said.

Hill said they are also working to standardize their hours as well. While they currently operate on multiple different times they are going to change the hours to a fixed schedule.

Hill said Option 1 will gradually replace the 11 routes with the on-demand transit service over the course of three different phases.

Option 2 will eliminate Sunday services completely and limit Saturday hourly services on routes 1,2, 3, 21 and 22. In addition, routes 5,6,7,8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18 and 23 will operate half the trips of a current weekday.

Finally, Option 3 will still include Sunday operations, have Saturday hourly services on the same routes as in option 2 and cut the trips in half with the same routes as in option 2 as well.

Hill said they have spent a lot of time re-working the concept to create the additional options.

He said after listening to the public’s comments, which were a resounding plea to not cut the routes but come up with another solution to keep them, the board made the decision to utilize the new KRTplus service in a way that will better accommodate everyone’s needs.

“We’re not cutting routes we’re actually enhancing routes, giving this option to be picked up on their convenience instead of living by our schedule, but also taking into account that those outlying areas still want their fixed route service in some form and that’s what option 2 and 3 were, they were a response to the feedback received from the public,” he said.

Hill said they had received over 400 different public comments over the course of a period of a couple months since announcing the changes.

He said listening to the public’s feedback was very enlightening, helping them to see the need for the routes.

“It was really great, especially to the concept of the new ideas because during those public hearings we proposed one option and it was pretty extreme and we knew it was, it was based on data, it didn’t necessarily take the human element into effect, and that’s what we got a lot of,” said Hill.