New bus route opens
Line will link Ontario with Vale
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:56 AM PST
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| This bus purchased by the Malheur Council on Aging and Community Services is now being used in service between Vale and Ontario. The bus route was launched Monday. |
NYSSA — A new daily bus service between Vale and Ontario started Monday.
The bus service is operated by Malheur Council on Aging and Community Services under the name Snake River Transit.
The new bus service begins at the Department of Human Services building in Ontario at 7:15 a.m., and the route ends at the United States Bureau of Land Management office in Vale at 7:45 a.m.
The bus will then leave from the Vale Senior Citizens Center at 9:15 a.m. and arrive at Wal-Mart at 10 a.m., where passengers will be able to switch to the Ontario and Payette Snake River Transit routes. The bus will leave Wal-Mart at 3:15 p.m. to arrive in Vale at 4 p.m.
The bus will then pickup riders at the BLM office at 4:30 p.m. for the trip back to Ontario. Fares for the services are $3 one-way and $5 round-trip, Loni Debban, Malheur Council on Aging and Community Services, said. Routes will function Monday through Friday.
Snake River Transit was able to purchase the new bus with federal stimulus funds.
“We have people going to BLM to work,” Debban said, but the public is welcome to ride during the early morning and late afternoon schedules.
Bus service between Boise and Ontario is also in the works and preliminary plans call for that schedule to begin in December, one day per week, on Wednesdays.
“We want to go to the airport,” Debban said. “We want to go to the mall.”
The logistics are still being worked out, but two round-trips are being planned. Bus service between Nyssa and Ontario has been discussed, but there has not been any interest expressed from the community, Debban said, and for now that is on hold. People or groups who may be interested in having regular bus service between Nyssa and Ontario, should contact MCOACS.
There is service from Nyssa to Fitness for Life for senior fitness programs, but that has a very narrow window, Debban noted.
Left By Choice wrote on Nov 17, 2009 12:03 PM: