Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Steve Spade, director of Chapel Hill Transit for the past six years, is leaving to take a position as transit director for Wichita Transit. During his leadership, the agency acquired its first hybrid and articulated buses and created a collaborative relationship with community partners.

Wichita Transit is proposing a quarter-cent sales tax to help mend its financially ailing bus system, which is carrying a $500,000 deficit for 2012.

WichitaTransitTalks.com, which acts as a virtual town hall, provides a convenient way for residents to share ideas, offer opinions and make recommendations on a broad variety of transit subjects including routes, services and possible expansion plans.

Last year, University of Kansas urban planning graduate students prepared a regional plan for Wichita Transit, which recommends north-south, east-west grid routes spaced about every half-mile.

Wichita Transit buses stopped at 68 different locations in Wichita and Hutchinson, Kan., December 1 to 6, collecting gifts donated from local businesses, schools, retail stores and individuals.