Bus Route 201 likely to be cut

Local News

February 18, 2012

Bus Route 201 likely to be cut

But private-public partnership may save it

Staff Reports Lockport Union-Sun & Journal The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sat Feb 18, 2012, 01:06 AM EST

While the NFTA link between Eastern Niagara Hospital-Lockport is expected be broken by the proposed Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority plan, there could be a reconnection in the future.

Route 201 is on the list of routes to be eliminated by the transit system, which estimates a $23 million deficit. The NFTA, which originally projected a 26 percent reduction in service, trimmed the reductions to 6.4 percent, according to spokesman Doug Hartmayer.

However, the Lockport link is on the short list to be cut. Route 64, the weekday express between Buffalo and Lockport, could be retained.

The revised NFTA plan won’t be finalized until after meetings at the Niagara Falls City Hall on March 21 and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library on March 22.

According to Hartmayer, the NFTA, is preparing a new business model that would consider a public/private partnership — that is, if the hospital or Walmart would be able to contribute to the cost, a link bus could be reinstituted.

That possibility throughout the NFTA system is still in the development stage, however.

“The NFTA will reach out to the community, and we want the community to reach out to the NFTA,” Hartmeyer said.