The West Virginia Department of Transportation recently started work on a major facility renovation project for Mountain State Transit Authority or MTA that includes overhauling the MTA’s headquarters and bus garage in Summersville, WV.
[Above photo by MTA]
MTA operates bus services in Nicholas, Webster, Pocahontas, and Greenbrier counties, including the communities of Summersville, Richwood, Webster Springs, and Lewisburg.
The renovation project aims to modernize and expand MTA’s Summersville headquarters, adding new office space and a room dedicated for bus driver training, as well expanding the garage area to house more buses.
The total cost of the renovation is estimated at $2.12 million, with a substantial portion of the funding – $1.69 million – coming from the Federal Transit Administration. WVDOT expects the renovation project to be complete by the fall of 2025.
Bill Robinson, executive director of public transit for WVDOT’s Division of Multimodal Transportation Facilities said this project “marks a significant milestone” for MTA, which has been an essential part of the community and surrounding areas for decades.
“This is the beginning of headquarter rehabilitation projects that will serve the public’s needs for the next 20 years,” he said in a statement.
“We have several people tell us, if it wasn’t for MTA, they would not be able to go to jobs,” added MTA General Manager Tim Thomas. “They would not be able to go to medical. They would not be able to go to school. And by school, I mean college.”
WVDOT noted that this investment in public transit is part of a broader effort by its multimodal division to improve transportation access throughout the Appalachian region of West Virginia, where public transit options are vital for connecting remote areas to larger urban centers.
State departments of transportation across the country provide a wide range of support to local and state-level transit services.
For example, the North Carolina Department of Transportation recently launched a new intercity bus route designed to coordinate with the Virginia Breeze bus service to better connect North Carolina and Virginia.
Buses will operate on this new route twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, seven days a week, and will directly connect to the Virginia Breeze Piedmont Express and Capital Connector intercity bus routes. The route will also directly connect to North Carolina’s Mountaineer East-West Route.
In November 2024, the Ohio Department of Transportation issued grants of more than $17.5 million in grants to public transportation providers in rural and urban areas of the state to help improve workforce mobility.
Those grants went to transit agencies in 16 counties through its Ohio Workforce Mobility Partnership Program or OWMP; supporting 33 transit projects that increase the ease and efficiency of transporting residents to economically significant employment centers or places of employment outside of their home communities.
And in October 2024, the Connecticut Department of Transportation launched a new “Tap & Ride” pilot program that allows customers to pay for bus fares by tapping their Visa or Mastercard branded debit card, credit card, or mobile wallet at contactless payment readers on River Valley Transit and CTtransit Meriden Division buses.
The agency said this project marks a major step in “modernizing public transportation” statewide; providing a seamless and secure way for customers to quickly pay while boarding the bus in select service areas, with no downloads or signups required.
And in late June 2024, the Illinois Department of Transportation issued a new statewide public transportation plan that aims to craft a new “strategic vision” for transit services in Illinois, as well as recommend policy, make performance updates, and identify specific initiatives. The agency noted that the last public transportation plan for Illinois was completed in 2018.
Entitled “Next Move Illinois,” this new transit plan dovetails with Move Illinois, Illinois DOT’s long-range transportation plan that is currently being updated.
The agency said “Next Move Illinois” will incorporate feedback from transit providers to help address the needs of diverse communities across the state, including ideas on enhancing accessibility, fostering long-term ridership growth, optimizing intermodal connectivity and implementing strategic measures to strengthen the transportation network against any future challenges.
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