Bus Route 620 Ending April 7

FARMINGTON — Route 620, a fixed bus route serving Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln, will cease to operate Friday, April 7.

“Route 620 will go away,” Jeff Hatley, public affairs officer with Ozark Regional Transit, told Prairie Grove City Council last week.

Hatley told council members the last day would be March 31 but he said ORT officials later decided to delay the last day until April 7 to allow more time to get the word out about the change.

Ozark Regional Transit started Route 620 in June 2014. It starts at 6:15 a.m. in West Fork, makes stops in Greenland, Lot 56 at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln. Then makes the return trip, making stops along the way, before ending at 9:15 p.m. in West Fork.

Instead of a fixed route, Ozark Regional Transit will designate two demand-response vans to serve rural areas of Washington County. Along with the cities on Route 620, the designated vans also will be used for Goshen and Elkins.

The change is to meet requests made by Washington County Quorum Court, Hatley said.

Last fall, the Quorum Court voted to drastically cut the money for Ozark Regional Transit by

$100,000, effectively meaning the Transit would not have the money to continue running Route 620. At the time, several justices of the peace said Route 620 had failed to meet expectations.

ORT and county representatives have met in meetings since then and in January, the Quorum Court decided to fund Route 620 for the first quarter.

Last week, Hatley said, it was agreed the county would fund the Transit for the full amount, an annual amount of $ 121,000, but county officials wanted to see an increase in ridership from rural areas and also wanted to see the Transit change its model of serving those areas.

The Transit requests that passengers who want to schedule a demand-response van call 24 hours in advance. Cost is $2.50 for one way. Monthly passes for demand-response vans are available, $ 25 for 10 rides.

Hatley said he believes using demand- response vans will be better for rural passengers, once the transition has been made and people understand it.

“If you live in Lincoln and want to go to Walmart, you don’t have to catch the bus at 7:30, shop and wait two hours to catch the bus to come home,” Hatley said.

A demand-response van picks up passengers at their home, takes them to a certain designation and then returns them home.

If several passengers are wanting to ride from the same area around the same time, it’s possible the Transit could schedule batch demand trips and riders would meet at a centralized location.

According to ORT reports, Route 620 had 3,471 pickups and drop-offs in 2015, compared to 3,710 pickups and drop- offs in 2016.

Ridership is down for January and February but Hatley said this could be attributed to a fire that destroyed most of the Transit’s fleet. The service is up to speed now but is using buses loaned by many systems across the country.

For January- February, Route 620 bus has picked up and dropped off 517 passengers, compared to 714 for the same period last year.