Office of Public Transit Iowa Transit Services Transit News Regulations, Funding and Legislation Resources Transit History -------------------------------- Calendar Transit Managers Handbook Classifieds Contact List Forms --------------------------------		Transit History General History Statistics Updates Region 1 History Northeast Iowa Community Action Public Transit began in August 1976 with five vans - one in each of the counties of Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, Howard and Winneshiek. The only people transported at that time were people over age 60 and their spouses. This was because the funding for buying the vans and operating the program came through a contract with the Area I Agency on Aging. At the time there were also five passenger cars and/or station wagons used in the Nutrition program, also funded by Area I Agency on Aging, to transport elderly to the meal site and to do home delivery of meals. To get the transit program going, routes were set up in each of the five counties to provide transportation five days a week for elderly people from communities in the county. In each community, volunteers were found who would take calls from those people wanting to ride the van and have a seat saved for them. Even then, if someone had a medical need, that person was given priority if there were more riders than seats on the van. Trips were usually to the county seat town, but could go just about anywhere the riders wanted to go - just as long as they could get back home safely yet that day. There were trips to Lacrosse, Wis., West Bend, the Amana Colonies, Rochester and Waterloo, and McGregor. Funding was quite abundant and there were no restrictions on purpose of the trips, just getting people out of their homes for a sight-seeing tour was an acceptable reason for scheduling a van trip --- as you can tell by some of the names they went by --- Senior Transportation, or later Country Travelers. Riders donate for their rides and the Agency on Aging contract covered the remainder of the cost. Before long a 100-mile, one-way restriction was put on - mostly for safety reasons - but this still left many places available to be visited by loads of people . In those days there were no restrictions about going out of state either - or, rather, there were restrictions but the transit officials didn't yet know about them. Luckily they didn't have any accidents out of state or there might have been a rather quick awakening. However they now have a US DOT permit to cross state lines. The first major change came in 1979-80 when the state of Iowa was charged with the task of eliminating unnecessary and duplicative transportation costs by coordinating transportation among agencies receiving state or federal funds.. Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation was designed as the Regional Transit Authority in the 5 counties comprising Region 1 and was given the task of coordinating transportation in the area. The Head Start and Nutrition programs were the first to coordinate with the transit program for transportation services for their clients. There two programs turned over to the transit program, their station wagons and cars and coordination was on way. The fleet was composed of six vans and five passenger cars; and the staff included six full-time and four part-time drivers, one secretary-bookkeeper and one program manager. Next came the addition of Title XX, the program that provides for the transportation of handicapped adults to the work activity centers in Decorah, Waukon, Stanley and Elkader, and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program to the system, now call the Northeast Regional Transit System. Through the years contracting has become an important part of transit. The following are some of the agencies that transit has had contracts with: Area I Agency on Aging, Title XX, Head Start, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, pre-schools in Lansing and Monona, Child development classes, Northeast Iowa Refugee Coordination Services, and the Hometown Taxi in Decorah. In the fall the local school systems are contracted with to aid in transporting Head Start and the Child Development programs, both to and from six Head Start classrooms - now we provide transporting for children in 15 Head Start classrooms and three Child Development classrooms coordinating most of it with school buses. The transit program currently employs five full-time lead drivers, two full-time drivers, and 29 part-time and back-up drivers, one service technician, one system administrator, and one manager. The NEICAC indirect staff handles bookkeeping duties. We currently have 44 vehicles in our fleet - ADA minivans, two minivans, and one ADA conversion van, nine standard vans, seven raised roof vans with lifts, six light duty buses and 15 ADA light duty buses. Services are no longer just for the elderly. Instead, transit services are available for any persons of any age, or any financial position who needs transportation, as we are a public transit system. We have regularly scheduled service through out the five county regions and the state, along with service into Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some of the areas that are provided transportation on a bi-monthly basis or as needed are: Iowa City, Waterloo, Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Rochester, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin.