In the next couple of months, Milford, Miami Township and Goshen Township residents will start to see the smaller Clermont Transportation Connection buses more frequently.
The CTC is launching a full-service, Metro-style busing system that will make eight stops between Park 50 in Milford and Kroger in Goshen Township.
"Anytime you have the opportunity to bring mass transit into a community, it's a positive, especially at a time when fuel costs are high and some areas don't have the ability to fix the roads," said Lou Ethridge, Goshen Township director of community and economic development.
CTC Director Ben Capelle said the project has been in the works for about a year and he hopes to have the service up-and-running by the end of January.
"We've been having some staffing issues that have set us back a bit, but we'll get it started as soon as possible," Capelle said. "It's a very needed service in that area of town, we get a lot of requests for the door-to-door service."
Those door-to-door service requests are what led to the advent of the full-service busing.
"We've had to turn down about 1,300 people (for the door-to-door service) each month because we're overbooked and understaffed," Capelle said. "Having regular bus routes, like a Metro, will make it so that people don't have to plan their lives around our schedule."
Two buses, which will be the smaller CTC-style buses, will run throughout the day from about 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. A bus will visit each stop in each direction about once every hour.
"I think this service is an opportunity to get workers to work, people to the park and ride and bring people around to do some shopping," said Milford Mayor David Hunter. "With the economy the way it is, not everyone has access to a car. It's a good way to connect the larger community."
The buses will stop at the corner of Wood and Main streets in Goshen Township, the corner of Deerfield and Woodville Road in Miami Township, Meijer in Miami Township, K-Mart in Miami Township, the Park and Ride in Milford, the corner of U.S. 50 and Mohawk Trail in Milford, near Main Street and Garfield in Milford, River's Edge in Milford, and Park 50.
"We (the city administration, fire and police departments) had a chance to preview the route earlier in the year and we were really pleased with the route," said Milford City Manager Loretta Rokey. "We think the bus service will be a very nice addition to the transit network we have."
The full-service busing, which will be a two-year pilot project, will cost just less than $200,000 a year to operate. About $95,000 of that will be paid for by a grant from the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments. The rest of the funding will come from the CTC's general budget and money generated from fares.
"People in the area are familiar with bus transportation and our door-to-door service. This will be easier and cheaper than the door to door," Capelle said.
He said the CTC is planning on seeing about 35,000 people ride the buses on this route each year.