In the coming months and even further down the road, the City of Amarillo's Public Transit will be drastically improved thanks to a federal grant.
"The money comes from the Federal Transit Administration which is part of the Department of Transportation and the CARES Act that was passed by congress is how this was funded," City of Amarillo Director of Public Transit, Marita Wellage-Reiley said.
The multi-million dollar grant will allow the city to buy six new public transit vehicles and buy new materials to make the system run smoother than in the past. The new buses will be bigger and will allow the public transit here in the yellow city to transport more people safely to their destination.
"When you see our new buses they're much bigger. We will be able to social distance better," Wellage-Reiley said. "We are able to have the driver up front isolated and I think most of the people in the city will be really impressed with the new vehicles."
Wellage-Reiley believes the buses could be on the road before Aug. 1 but she says because the buses are different, they have a lot of training ahead of them.
"No later than August the first, we hope to get them on the street before then," said Wellage - Reiley. "Right now we have one vehicle and we have to go through a 20 page inspection required by the federal government. Then we have to train our mechanics and train our drivers how to drive the vehicles and that will take us several weeks to be able to accomplish that."
Wellage - Reiley said during the pandemic, they have seen a large drop in riders, but numbers are back on the rise.
Senator Cornyn recently made the announcement that the city would be awarded the federal grant, totaling just under $9.9 million.
The buses that are a 2017 will be kept in commission, and will be re-branded to match the new buses.
Wellage-Reiley says there is currently no fare to ride the bus, and it has been that way since March 23.