TAMPA - At today's board meeting, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) Board of Directors approved a memorandum of agreement officially merging the operations of Bay Area Commuter Services (BACS) into TBARTA.

The move now makes TBARTA responsible for a variety of commuter services serving Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

"TBARTA and BACS have a shared mission and responsibility of improving mobility and providing transportation options for people in the Tampa Bay region. This union will help us increase program effectiveness, decrease overall costs and take advantage of efficiencies which can be accomplished through the co-location and combination of both organizations' programs and operations," said Ronnie Duncan, Chairman of the TBARTA Board of Directors.

Bay Area Commuter Services, Inc. is one of the Florida Department of Transportation's nine commuter assistance programs within the state. Created in 1992, BACS is a private, non-profit organization founded and funded by the State of Florida Department of Transportation to promote transportation options to the single-occupant vehicle in the Tampa Bay area and surrounding counties.

Some of the programs and commuter services that TBARTA will continue to provide include: carpool and commuter vanpool matching; working with businesses on programs such as compressed work week and variable work hour strategies; teaching businesses and organizations how to telework; and other transportation mobility, fuel reduction and congestion reducing strategies.

Under the merger agreement, the BACS Board of Directors will become an advisory body to TBARTA concerning commuter assistance and mobility programs within the TBARTA governance and operations structure.

The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (www.TBARTA.com) was created by the Florida Legislature in 2007 to plan and develop a multimodal transportation system that will connect the seven counties of the Tampa Bay region. TBARTA adopted a legislatively mandated Regional Transportation Master Plan for the Tampa Bay region in May 2009.

The goal of the Master Plan is to engage the public in developing a vision for regional integration of transportation systems and foster partnerships with government agencies and business entities. Moving forward with the Master Plan, TBARTA will begin work on several studies that will be ongoing in 2010 and 2011.