Weigh in on Bus Service in Leesburg Wednesday

The Town of Leesburg has planned two public input sessions regarding local bus service for Wednesday, Aug. 21, as part of a transit management study currently underway.

Kimley-Horn and Associates in conducting the analysis for Loudoun County, and Wednesday’s public input sessions seek feedback about current operations along Leesburg’s four bus routes, currently operated by Virginia Regional Transit. The four routes include the Battlefield/Ida Lee route, the Leesburg Sycolin Road route, the Leesburg Trolley and the Safe-T-Ride. For details about the routes, including current bus stop locations and schedules, please see Virginia Regional Transit’s website at www.vatransit.org.  

The first session starts at 8:30 a.m. and aims to gather input from local businesses, organizations and agencies whose clients, customers and employees use bus service to access their locations.

The second session begins at 3 p.m. and was scheduled to obtain input from local bus service riders.

Both public input sessions will be held in the Leesburg Town Hall’s – 25 West Market Street in Leesburg – lower level.

Late last year, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) informed Loudoun County and the Town of Leesburg that the local bus routes in eastern Loudoun County and the Town of Leesburg were no longer eligible for funding under the federal Rural Transit Program, based on 2010 U.S. Census data regarding population densities. The current federal funding for the local bus service expires on September 30, 2013. 

DRPT agreed to fund the Kimley-Horn study to help Loudoun and Leesburg transitions away from the Rural Transit Program.