The rural transportation service in Peoria County lost half of its ridership last year with new census data. John Hamman is with the Peoria County that matches state funding for the service. He says CityLink is now transporting people in areas like Chillicothe and Bartonville, now considered part of the urban area. But Hamann says the County relied on agreements with area agencies to help secure the grant funding for the service:
“Even if someone were to decide to do the rural service, because the ridership is so low and we’ve lost most of that contract work with those social service agencies, where would we, the county, come up with the local match?”
The County also has a contract for CityLink to run the rural transit service. Hamann says the County will decide early next year whether to extend its current contract with a rural provider, or re-bid the service.