CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority is again going back to the drawing board regarding what to do about its 11 routes throughout the Kanawha Valley that were up for proposed elimination, and narrowing it down to one potential option– they are now looking at cutting them back instead of getting rid of them entirely.
In addition to cutting the frequencies of trips on these 11 routes in half, the KRT board, which met Thursday, are also presenting the option to completely do away with Sunday services.
During Thursday’s meeting it was decided that a smaller committee known as KRT’s Comprehensive Operational Analysis (COA) committee will meet yet again to go more in-depth with the potential options.
Once the COA committee meets and narrows down the potential options to an official set recommendation to the board, KRT will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, September 25 at 4 p.m. at the KRT headquarters to present the committee’s recommendation to the public.
Sean Hill
KRT Executive Director Sean Hill said they want to make sure the decision they make is the best one possible for KRT as well as its passengers.
“In just, it’s that we are being very deliberative on this, our board is being very deliberative making sure that we get as much feedback as we possibly can in making sure that any decision we make is both fiscally responsible but also taking into account of passengers,” Hill said.
The full board will then take the recommendation into consideration at their meeting on Thursday, September 26 at 8:45 a.m.
The 11 routes under consideration to change are:
Tyler Mountain
. Elkview
. Campbells Creek
. Sissonville
. Northgate off Greenbrier Street
. Wertz Avenue
. Beech Avenue
. South Hills
. South Park
. Fort Hill
. and Clendenin
Instead of running these routes eight times a day, Hill said they would run them just four times if the board decides to go with that proposed option.
Hill said they are also still working in the utilization of the KRTplus service to help facilitate the new process.
He said KRTplus will be similar to a ride-sharing service where passengers are picked up from a location in a KRT vehicle and taken to either a bus route or another designated location.
“Three different options, they either come and pick you up from your home, take you to fixed route, so that means they’d come pick you up and take you to a bus route, or we will have what we call zones where you can be picked up at one location in that zone and dropped off at a second location in another zone, then the third option is what we call Points Of Interest where you are picked up inside one of the KRT zones and taken to, right now the first POI we’re going to start with is the airport,” said Hill.
He said this is a good new option to help make the dollars go further as well as opening up KRT services to people who may have not otherwise ever ridden with KRT.
Hill said while they are still needing to make these changes to save money at KRT, they are also aware that passengers’ livelihoods are at stake and want to make sure they balance those two factors out.
“We have some responsibilities obviously such as being fiscally-responsible with our funds which is why this conversation started, but we also understand that there’s a human element to this and we do play an important role in getting individuals to and from work, schools, grocery stores, medical appointments, etc.,” he said.
The public has been very forward about expressing their opposition to the proposed changes since they were first presented back in May.
However, Hill said throughout this transitionary process at KRT, they have realized that the more times they sit down with the public to discuss the changes, the more they all come to a consensus that there are realities that KRT has to live within and will have to accommodate to the changes.
“Change is hard, we understand that here at KRT and if you rely on KRT to again, get to work and all of those different places, its really important that you understand how that system works, so the more public information and the more events we can have the better, and I am happy the board has been so deliberative and they understand the weight of the decision they have to make,” said Hill.