Two LR bus routes stalled until October

LITTLE ROCK — Two new bus routes in southwest Little Rock listed among projects in a voterapproved sales-tax increase last year won’t begin before October, Central Arkansas Transit Authority directors were told Tuesday.

Establishment of a John Barrow Road bus route and another route to the Pulaski Technical College satellite campus in southwest Little Rock were part of a city sales-tax increase Little Rock voters approved in September.

Part of the tax package is to provide $660,000 in operating money to add the two bus routes previously expected to start this summer.

Any route changes are waiting on a $175,000 operational analysis by KFH Group, a Maryland transit consultant, that had been expected to be complete by now, said Betty Wineland, CATA’s executive director.

The study should be ready by the board’s next meeting July 17, she said.

The study could produce “more changes than we’ve ever done on route revisions,” and involve relocating bus stops and moving bus shelters, all of which will take time, Wineland told directors at Tuesday’s monthly meeting.

“For the two new routes, we’ll not see them until October,” Wineland said.

Director Sara Lenehan, Little Rock’s finance director, asked that CATA “make a proactive attempt” to inform potential passengers who have been waiting on those bus routes of the new time frame, because previous discussions had been to start the routes in mid-year.

“Those customers have been expecting this service,” Lenehan said.

Any funds from the new Little Rock sales-tax revenue won’t be forwarded to CATA until the new routes are operational, Wineland said.

Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski County, Sherwood and Maumelle provide $10.6 million of CATA’s $14.4 million operating budget in exchange for bus service. Little Rock is CATA’s largest local funding partner. Remaining funds are from federal grants, operating revenue and other sources.

A temporary route in the John Barrow Road area for four days a week ran as a trial for the new route, but ended this spring. CATA eliminated a little-used portion of a bus route that served the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field area to provide that part-time service.