CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha Valley’s main transportation service is making more changes to accommodate passengers while more effectively balancing their budget.

Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Sean Hill says that through the implementation of new micro transits and the addition of more zones they operate within, passengers will never before be in more control of their own time.

Hill said during a KRT media briefing Monday that they plan to hold two public hearings regarding the matter of a full or partial replacement of six bus routes with the new micro transits through the KRTPlus service, which they have been operating since last October.

He said these routes will include the following:

. #10– City Park/ North Gate/ Hillcrest
. #13 — Beech Ave
. #11 — Wertz Ave
. #15 — South Hills
. #16 — South Park
. #18 — Fort Hill/ Montrose

Hill said this decision to change these bus routes to KRTPlus zones stems from a comprehensive operational analysis KRT launched a few years ago that looks at the functionality of the routes across their entire system to determine which routes are working well versus which aren’t functioning as good.

Sean Hill

He said they looked at the per-passenger costs and found that even after they made some changes in the fall of last year, they were still seeing prices at $24 to $72 per passenger across those six routes, and they realized they needed to continue going back to the drawing board and create a better system.

“That’s really tough for us to justify,” Hill said. “We think we owe it to the passengers, we owe it to the taxpayers, and everyone who holds us accountable to say, hey, how can we do more with the same funding, and we’ve come up with some creative solutions where we’re not taking service away from people, we’re replacing it with new and exciting opportunities.”

Lance Wheeler

Kanawha County Commissioner Lance Wheeler said he’s so proud of the work KRT put in on this initiative and believes this will be extremely beneficial to not only KRT, but its passengers as well.

“What we’re seeing today is enhancing our public transportation here in Kanawha County,” Wheeler said. “What we’re going to do is offer more services, more availability, and get people to where they need to go, whether that’s through the bus system or KRTPlus.”

Currently, KRT operates three micro transit zones in West Charleston, East Charleston, and South Hills.

Hill said that they’ve been operating those zones since last fall and have been averaging about 90% ride completion, meaning they now feel more confident they can expand those zones into three more zones– South Charleston, South Ridge, and Kanawha City.

He said this plan adds efficiency and avoids route elimination.

“That will expand our current system while at the same time, looking at those six over-subsidized and inefficient routes and instead of taking those route services away, which we don’t want to do, we’re going to replace them with this micro transit opportunity,” he said.

Hill said through this system, passengers are able to schedule a ride on the KRTPlus app or by calling their office, similar to any ridesharing service, and a micro transit will pick them up from their home and either take them to somewhere inside their zone or to a fixed bus route.

Also on Monday, Hill announced the addition of 14 new sprinter-style vans, which are compact, more fuel efficient vans that will still be able to accommodate all their paratransit services. He said these sprinter vans are the micro transits passengers will get transported to and from their destination in across the various zones.

He said they would be rolling out these vehicles to the public within the next two weeks starting on July 14.

Hill said these micro transit vans will be able to serve multiple functions. 

“All of these vehicles are ADA accessible, so they will be able to accommodate our paratransit services, so our existing passengers who rely on that, they will also be able to serve the micro transit population, anyone in those six zones who want to use this service, and also help with our SOAR program, our opioid response program,” he said.

KRT announced the KRTPlus app and changes to some of its routes last fall. In February, Hill said they made the decision to cut the under-performing routes’ frequencies in half and eliminated Sunday service altogether.

He said as a result of these changes, they saw their service hours drop by 24%, but ridership only went down by 5%, which showed them that they weren’t wrong in their projections of there being more service on some of those routes than necessary.

Hill added that they realized that in order for the micro transit program to work, it needs to actually replace the inefficient routes, not subsidize them.

KRT currently has around 3,400 of its passengers utilizing KRTPlus after it started last fall.

Hill said this new system has been a longtime in the making and something that needed some more perfecting before officially launching it in to operation.

“There were so many different variables and so many real stories and issues that we had to iron out to ensure that when we rolled this out to a larger group of people, we were confident it would work,” Hill said. “So, it has taken a long time and internally, we wanted to push go, because we recognize there were so many savings, efficiencies, and really, savings to our taxpayers when it comes to our budget time.”

In addition, other changes the board decided on last fall included changes to KRT’s fare structure.

Hill said those changes will also be implemented on July 14 and will include day passes going up from $2.50 to $3.50, but monthly passes dropping from $60 to down to $50. He said single-ride tickets will remain the same at $1.50.

Wheeler said he wants to let anyone who may be concerned over these changes at KRT know that it’s an enhancement of services, not a downsizing.

“I think this is, again, more opportunities to get you to where you need to be,” Wheeler said. “I think that’s where this all started was, how can we offer better services for public transportation in Kanawha County, and what we realized is that KRTPlus, the micro transits are going to to be able to make it available for people to get to where they want to go more efficiently.”

KRT will host two meetings this week regarding the route changes and the further implementation of KRTPlus into their transportation system.

The first meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday and the following one will be Friday at noon. Both will take place at the Kanawha County Public Library in Charleston.