Joel Gardner, executive director of Ozark Regional Transit (ORT) attended the most recent Arkansas Transit Association (ATA) conference in Little Rock, in October. At the event, he was recognized with the President’s Award: an annual award given in recognition of the recipient’s commitment and professional contribution to the Arkansas public transportation industry.
Gardner has been with ORT since November 2012 and in his tenure an emphasis on maintaining scheduled times, and expansion of the overall system has been his mandate. Since Gardner took the reigns, ridership has been increasing overall, with 2014 being a record year, and ORT’s bus network growing from eight routes in 2012, to fifteen in 2015.
Recently compiled statistics reveal that fixed route ridership has increased by 16 percent from September 2014 and Para-Transit ridership for the month has increased 4% from last year; putting ORT on pace for a second, consecutive record year.
