MATA bus service returning to WM
Memphis City Council approves return of MATA to serve this side of the river
By DON WILBURN
news@theeveningtimes.com
Many residents of West Memphis have struggled and were left walking since a lack of federal funding and declining ridership caused the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to cancel its contract with the city in March of 2018. The number of riders in West Memphis peaked in 2009 at 280,386, but had plunged to 76,000 by 2017.
“The bus service helped some of our most vulnerable [in the] population access school, work, grocery stores, and banks. Unfortunately, funding for transportation has decreased which has left us in a powerless situation,” Paul Luker, former West Memphis Director of Planning and Development said at the time, in a news release issued by MATA and that MATA, the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the West Memphis Advertising and Promotions Committee “have worked tirelessly to come up with creative solutions to our funding troubles over the years. Without their help, the bus service would not have been able to operate for as long as it did. If funding priorities ever shift back to transportation, we will gladly welcome citywide bus service.”
See MATA BUS, page A3
The proposed shuttle busses will bear the City of West Memphis logo.
Image courtesy of the City of West Memphis MATA BUS
From page A1
It would certainly appear that those priorities have shifted and there is good news on the horizon as temperatures begin to cool down and walking no longer becomes a neither safe nor viable option. On Monday, after many arduous years of negotiation, West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon struck a deal between MATA, Memphis City Council and West Memphis to bring back bus routes across the bridge to Memphis. The good news doesn’t end there, though, as according to Mayor Mc-Clendon the new bus service, called READY! will not be large mostly-empty busses, but smaller shuttles providing a service more akin to private ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, which is to say “curb-to-curb” pick up and drop off.
“I can’t continue to let the senior citizens walk back and forth to the hospital, doctor appointments, mothers and fathers walking to work, walking to the grocery stores. We are a better city than that,” McClendon said.
The new shuttles and vans, which will bear the City of West Memphis logo, are expected to appear on West Memphis streets as early as October and will cost a _xed-rate fare of $2 per ride. Each shuttle will carry up to eight passengers. The new convenient service, which can be scheduled by phone or the TransLoc app available on the Google and Apple app stores, is accessible to those living with disabilities and will allow riders exibility in their local travel for errands, trips to the supermarket, medical appointments and across the bridge to downtown Memphis at the Hudson Transit Center.
For more information about READY! visit www. matatransit.com/ready.
