Allen County RTA Operations Manager and Co-Director Brian Wildermuth spoke to the Kiwanis Club Tuesday afternoon to discuss the newest updates at at the organization.
LIMA — Big changes are coming for the Allen County Regional Transit Authority, as the Lima Kiwanis Club discovered Tuesday.
RTA Operations Manager and Co-Director Brian Wildermuth spoke to the Lima Kiwanis Club at its regular meeting at Milano Cafe to discuss the new things that are happening.
“We’re going to talk about how our ridership is expanding,” Wildermuth said before the meeting. “We’re also going to discuss some of our newer projects which will start this Saturday with the Lima Loop. The trolley (that will begin around 8:20 on Saturday) runs just Saturdays for the month of July. It will run Friday evenings and Saturdays during the day for starting in August through November. We will have some special events, especially the week that the amphitheater kicks off there at the beginning of August.”
Wildermuth also said the RTA plans to start a garage expansion and create a mobile app for community members. The app is set to be available in August.
“They will be able to book their trips, pay for the trips and schedule their own trips all on the app,” said Wildermuth. “You will still be able to call in to our dispatchers, if you’d prefer doing it that way. We will discuss our ridership, projects and just overall how I believe we’re helping out the community.”
Wildermuth also gave an update on the organization’s transition from a “flagging system” to a “fixed route” system. The system changed in March.
“We are a lot lot more efficient,” said Wildermuth. “More importantly we were able to add on and cover a lot more areas.”
Wildermuth said the changes were to not only help the community but aid in a “thriving downtown.”
“We have a town that is really starting to expand and starting to thrive,” he said. “We want to do our part as far as helping out that in whatever way we can. The trolley is basically going to go around what’s the entertainment district and a lot of restaurants and shops right in the downtown area. So it was to help just get people out about the town easier.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
