Citrus County wants to increase the route and ridership of its public bus service, and hopes to use Lecanto as the hub after it adds a second line for the west side of the county.

The county currently runs the Orange Line, a fixed-bus route between Beverly Hills, Lecanto and Inverness Monday through Friday on the east side of the county. County public works director Ken Frink told county commissioners on Jan. 10 that he hopes to add the "Blue Line," which will connect riders with the west side of the county.

"The Orange Line operating on the east side of the county for about two years," Frink said. Frink said that this line also includes a door-to-door component that helps transportation disadvantaged people get to the doctor. "For most of these folks, this service is their only means of leaving their houses and getting their medical needs met."

Frink and County Administrator Brad Thorpe lobbied commissioners for a bus transportation hub to be based in Lecanto that would serve as a depot and hub to link the east and west sides of the county. Frink suggested that Fixed route more efficient than door-to-door system.

"Most of this bus system money is coming from the FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation)," Thorpe said. "Our yearly match is about $420,000 and the system provides about $3 million in services for county residents." The money to pay for the hub would also pay for the hub in Lecanto, Thorpe told County Commissioner Dennis Damato, and would not require any county matching funds.

Thorpe said that he was confident that another line would be a good thing for the public. Although he didn't provide any concrete statistics to prove to commissioners that the Orange Line has been successful, he did offer a few thoughts. "You should look at the success of the Orange Line and extrapolate from that for the Blue Line," Thorpe said. Both Thorpe and Frink told commissioners that the ridership for the Orange Line has been growing since it was first established, and has now reached, Frink said, a ridership estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000 riders per month.

County Transportation Supervisor Lon Frye told commissioners that he hoped to develop a corridor concept of where the bus goes. "We would like to see it go as far north as Mall to new Wal-Mart at cardinal to the community college." Frye said the Blue Line route would Include the Meadoocrest area of Crystal River, the new place to where county satellite offices have been moved.

"Lecanto would be the hub to focus these loops. "To make this successful, we have to go to where people live," Frye said. He added that the demographics are different for the west side than for the east side, and said that the county will also need to load people into these buses at a Lecanto hub for the different destinations.

Any new route will not be developed in isolation, Frye told commissioners. "We have to listen more and talk less. This is not a transit project, it's a Citrus County project. Input is welcome."

OTHER COUNTY BUS ARTICLES:

• County's fixed-bus route shows increasing ridership
• County realigns fixed-bus route, adds stops