This story was reported and written by WHRO media partner Williamsburg Watch.
The regional bus authority reached a post-COVID high of 1.5 million riders last year and will increase frequency to be a more convenient option, Williamsburg City Council was told Monday.
“We need to be more convenient” to grow ridership further, Matthew Scalia, executive director of the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority, told the council’s work session.
Scalia said frequency on the two main routes — 1 from Lee Hall to the Williamsburg Transportation Center and Route 2 along the Richmond Road corridor — will increase to every 30 minutes this spring. Other routes will get additional frequency over the next four years, he said, with Route 12 going to a bus every 15 minutes.
Increased ridership will eventually increase the federal funding that pays 41.6% of the bus service’s $9.8 million operating budget this year, Scalia said. Localities served by WATA — Williamsburg and James City and York counties — contribute 15.7%. The balance is paid by a combination of state funding, payments from Colonial Williamsburg and fares.
Scalia told city council that bus riders will benefit from the August opening of the new $11 million transit center off Mooretown Road near the Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center.
The new center will feature public restrooms and indoor and outdoor shelter spaces that will make changing buses more comfortable and safer, Scalia said.
It will replace an external stop near the Walmart.
