Key areas in Ozark Regional Transit ridership have increased to pre-fire levels.
A significant fire experienced on January 10, 2017, wiped out 80 percent of ORT’s fixed route fleet. Slowly, ridership is being restored to levels not seen since 2016. In that year, ORT averaged between 1100 and 1300 daily riders.
George’s employees enjoy free ridership due to a partnership with the chicken-processing company. Ridership numbers have ebbed and flowed over the past several months, but hit a record number of single-day riders on July 28th.
ORT’s new policy regarding free-fare for Veterans has been a huge ridership success with over 400 riders per week beginning to be the norm. (See Attached)
These two line items both enhanced overall ridership numbers in recent weeks and on at least three separate occasions, ridership had increased to over 1100 riders per day.
This is a strong indicator that NW Arkansas’ regional transit system is well on its way to recovery.
