Sep. 2—The New Castle Area Transit Authority's new bus tracking software is now up and running.
During Wednesday's authority board meeting, General Manager David Richards said the Fixed Route Intelligent Software System, or FRITS, has been installed for dispatchers and drivers at 311 Mahoning Ave. terminal and at the transfer station downtown.
With FRITS, dispatchers can track buses while drivers can know their next stops, if they're on schedule and their daily rider count. For now, riders can track buses and see if they're on time.
Richards said the authority is finalizing an app that will allow riders to check routes, pickup times and how full they are at a given time.
In other meeting news, a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting will take place at 11 a.m. Sept. 19 for the new bush wash system in the main building and the new garage at 410 Hobart St. to celebrate the completion of its two capital projects.
The bus garage houses 18 of the authority's 32 buses. The rest park at the main facility.
The board approved July work payments for both projects.
For the garage, the payment was $21,910 for electric work from Hickory Township-based McCurley Houston Electric. All but $60,000 of the $6-million project was paid using federal and state grants.
For the bush wash project, payments were $30,297.71 and $24,576.93 to Neshannock Township's GEM Building Contracting & Developers and Blackhawk Neff Inc. for general contracting work and electric work, respectively, and $1,091.25 to Somerset County-based MARC-Service Inc. for HVAC work.
All but $40,000 of the $1.7-million project was paid using grant funding.
Richards said a walkthrough of the bus wash was done Aug. 7, and a final list of items to be completed was given to contractors. He hopes to start using the system within the next week.
City buses and Allied Coordinated Transportation Services will not run on Monday because of Labor Day.
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