“The concept could have multiple benefits in helping all route areas get access to Middletown and Monroe jobs and shopping areas, and it would give our residents opportunities to connect to the Dayton RTA system to move throughout the Miami Valley,” said Doug Adkins, Middletown’s city manager.
Adkins said the style of the route has been discussed, but the actual stopping points, the timing of the route, and the number of service hours remain under discussion. He said the costs are still being calculated.
“The next step in the process is to present the idea to the Monroe and Middletown City Councils to gauge their support for such a proposal,” Adkins said. “We hope to be able to do that in February.”
He said if both city councils are supportive, then the actual costs, route and service hours would be finalized into something that realistically would begin sometime this summer or fall.
Monroe City Manager Bill Brock said a presentation to Monroe City Council is already planned for February.
“We are eager to have a transit route to serve our employment centers, specifically our industrial parks,” Brock said. “It supplies an opportunity for those seeking employment to take advantage of those jobs being offered and helps our employers by broadening the employee base.”
Brock said connecting to the Dayton RTA system came from BCRTA through the discussions.
“We support the initiative to tie into a larger system, similar to what BCRTA has been successful with to the south with their express line to the Cincinnati (Metro) system,” Brock said.
Middletown contracts with BCRTA to operate Middletown Transit Services that has several bus routes throughout the city.
“We’re really excited about extending into the Dayton area,” said Matthew Dutkevicz, BCRTA executive director. “One of our missions as an economic development tool is to supply workers to Butler County businesses. We hope this will expand the Butler County labor pool and make it economically and geographically bigger.”
Getting people to work is something BCRTA does with the R1 route between Hamilton and Middletown and other connectors into Hamilton County. The route has a stop throughout the day at the Kohls distribution center in Monroe. Dutkevicz said the route had about 14,000 riders a month in 2016.
Dutkevicz said the proposed route would be similar to the current bus route from West Chester to downtown Cincinnati that are operated by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority’s Metro. Brandy Jones, Metro’s external affairs manager, said the total ridership for Route 42x was 108,515 in 2016.
As the new route is established, he said it would connect Monroe, Middletown and South Dayton using BCRTA buses. Dutkevicz said Saturday service is still being explored and the costs have yet to be determined. He said the route would be funded through a federal grant that would be obtained by Middletown Transit Service to cover 50 percent of the costs and the remaining 50 percent would come from local matches from cities of Middletown and Monroe.
“We can do it now with buses we have now,” he said.
Dutkevicz said the proposed new route would terminate in Monroe for now. However, he said the route could be extended further to connect to Liberty and West Chester Twps. and further south to Cincinnati.
Both Dutkevicz and Adkins said there still remains a lot more work to do before this route can start. Dutkevicz said it takes people and employers time to change shift patterns to bus route schedules and for marketing to make people aware and the message communicated.
“Looking at the Hamilton and Oxford routes from Middletown, they took almost a year of service to build to productive levels,” Adkins said. “We would anticipate a similar ramp up process if this route was to take place.”
Brandon Policicchilo, Greater Dayton RTA’s chief customer and business development officer, said that he was aware that Middletown and Monroe were in the process of getting approvals from their respective city councils and that BCRTA gave them the “heads up” that they were interested to connect into the Dayton area.
“We said ‘yes’ of course,” he said. “We’re excited about this connection that gains access for both agencies.”
When they arrive at the South Hub, Policicchilo said riders can connect to the rest of the Dayton RTA network in Montgomery County and with the CATS network in Greene County as well.
“If they’re able to make it happen, we’re absolutely ready and excited to welcome Butler County passengers to our network and region,” he said.
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