History of ORT

    Ozark Regional Transit has its roots in the services of the Economic Opportunity Agency of Washington County (EOA). In 1974, EOA received Federal Title XX funds to provide Dial-A-Ride demand-response transportation for elderly, low income residents of the county.

    In1977 EOA initiated one of seven national rural public transportation demonstration projects, known as "Section 147" projects. Projects of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration had been restricted to urbanized areas.

    The Section 147 effort was initiated in recognition of the fact that people living in small cities and rural areas also need transit service, and that the advantages of federal participation in financing such services are the same as the advantages of participation in financing large urban transit or highways for that matter. The federal program created a powerful link among systems, enabling technology transfer, monitoring of safety and quality of service, and access to capital. Interest in expanding the service in Northwest Arkansas was high.

    In 1978, Northwest Arkansas Human Concerns, Inc. Changed its name to Community Resource Group, Inc. (CRG). A three year ride brokering service, called Project Respond, enabled the community to develop a coalition of local agencies, sharing a commitment to coordinating the use of transportation resources, to maximize the availability of service for transportation disadvantaged people.

    Through the late 70's and the early 80's Ozark Regional Transit continued to grow and prosper; however, in 1982, the Dept. of Transportation designated Fayetteville/Springdale area urbanized. Because of this ORT was unable to continue the two fixed routes that was offered at the time. The company was still able to continue to deliver demand-response service, and eventually to expand access to it.

    In 1991, Ozark became the recipient of Section 9 urban transit funds and daily service in Fayetteville and Springdale began. In 1993, the City of Rogers provided funds to allow mid-day services to be provided in Rogers. In the following year the cities of Springdale and Fayetteville joined in supporting transit in the region. By 1994 the city of Bentonville coordinated with the City of Rogers to bring transportation into Bentonville.

    By 1995, mid-day service began in Carroll County, thanks to the cities of Eureka Springs, Green Forest, and Berryville. The Carroll County Resource Council is largely responsible for developing the service, which continues to gain in ridership.

    On January 1, 2002, the Board of Directors for Ozark Regional Transit contracted First Transit Management services to provide the daily management staff.

Our budget in 2001 was $1.6M, and the local government match was $100K. Today the budget is $2.4M and the local government match is $800,000. The majority of our funding is thru the Federal Transportation Administration, which includes both rural and urbanized area funding. This funding is for capital, operations, preventative maintenance and administration. All of these areas require either a 20 to 50% of local match to the federal money. However, almost all transit systems in the U.S. “overfund or over match” local money to the Federal. Our FTA rural funding is thru the AHTD, and that they are a wonderful organization to work with. The amount of FTA money for the urbanized area in NW Arkansas is $1.8 million, with $1M to ORT and the remainder to Razorback Transit. ORT has 110 square miles of urbanized service area, Razorback has 18 square miles.

Some highlights of our system are:
2002 First Fixed route-Fixed routes operate on a fixed set of streets and have a public schedule.
2005 Six additional Fixed routes were added
2006-7 City of Lowell Joined Authority, and an additional fixed route.
New routes demonstrated in Centerton, and discussions with Pea Ridge, and Siloam Springs for new service Overall Ridership is up 21% YTD as we conclude our fiscal year New Commuter Express route connecting Bentonville and Fayetteville, Wal-Mart, NWACC, and the University of Arkansas.
Possible additional two new fixed routes in Fayetteville and Springdale, contingent upon local government funding.