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Destiny Remezas

Glen Crismon only had to stop for a moment at the Student Recreation Center and then his next passenger came out of the building. After she was safely inside the bus, Crismon, a driver for Jackson County Mass Transit, was on his way.

The mass transit district, which covers all of Jackson County, will receive a new van from a grant administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation in July.

"With the new minivan this summer, hopefully, it will enable us to get out in the outer-county region more often," said Dava Shorb, managing director of Mass Transit.

The new vehicle will get better gasoline mileage than each of the four 10-passenger buses used by Jackson County Mass Transit right now.

An additional opportunity for increasing the funding received by Jackson and other counties has resulted from an initiative by the Rural Affairs Council aimed at encouraging counties to expand the services they offer.

"We would advocate for this money next spring," said Linda Podeschi, executive director of the Illinois Public Transportation Association.

Under the new law that went into effect June 22, counties that open their own transportation system or join an existing one will be eligible to receive increased grant dollars from the state.

"It just makes the process easier and more available," Shorb said.

The Jackson County Transportation Service has been in operation since 2000. It is open to the general public.

"Overall the trend has been upward in ridership," said Don Monty, a member of the transportation board.

Crismon said today was unusually busy for a summer day. Although he often stops at a variety of locations, he said campus pick-ups and drop-offs are uncommon.

The transportation district sees a noticeable rise in campus passengers during the fall and spring semesters.

"I've been thinking about how to advertise on campus in a cost effective way," Shorb said.

The transit service differs from most other forms of public transportation because it will pick up a passenger from any location and drop them off at any location, as long as the journey is within the county. Most forms of public transportation will only stop at specific locations on a dedicated route. The Mass Transit has no set schedule and no dedicated pickup areas.

Riders are advised to call a day in advance.

"The schedule just gets full a day before," Shorb said. "It gets hard to fit people in each day."

The cost of an one way adult fare is $2 and the one way student fare is $1.50.

"The fare is a pretty good deal because we are subsidized by grants," Shorb said.

This year Mass Transit will receive $224,000 from state and federal grants. The amount of money received from these grants increases 10 percent each year.

The yearly increase helps to cover increased costs, such as rising gas prices, Shorb said.

In order to support and stabilize county transportation systems, Illinois has initiated a statewide program to assist county transit services when applying for grants and to find additional funding sources.

"It's a place to specifically go for these kinds of resources and support," Podeschi said.

Reporter Destiny Remezas can be reached at destiny_remezas@dailyegyptian.com