The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) was formed in 1971, after a special election approved a property tax to fund a public service to serve Toledo, Sylvania, Sylvania Township, Ottawa Hills, Spencer Township, and Rossford.
TARTA replaced the privately-owned Community Traction Company, which had served the area since 1921. Community Traction acquired several other companies that also provided bus and rail services in northwest Ohio, including the Toledo Railway & Light Company, the Maumee Valley Transportation Company, and the Holland-Sylvania Lines. CTC operated an electric trolley coach system from 1935 to 1952.
The Maumee community added TARTA service in 1979, followed by Waterville in 1981. A Call-A-Ride service provided trips from point-to-point in suburban communities in small buses, and demand response service to provide a road to independence for persons with disabilities was launched in 1989 with the rollout of the Toledo Area Regional Paratransit Service (TARPS), under the TARTA umbrella.
Lucas County voters switched TARTA’s funding structure from a property tax to a sales tax in 2021. As part of its comprehensive operational analysis – TARTA Next – TARTA personnel met with community leaders and members of the public at dozens of forums and community events to determine what customers wanted from TARTA, and how it could improve.
Upgrades to the system began to take place even before TARTA received funds from the sales tax, with the resumption of Sunday and holiday service to reverse past budget-cut casualties and increased frequency on some routes.
In 2023, TARTA replaced its Call-A-Ride system with a pilot program for the TARTA Flex on-demand service. Through the use of this service, connected suburban customers to its fixed-route system through rides in accessible vans. The public responded, as ridership on Flex quickly doubled the Call-A-Ride system it had replaced, and the coverage area of Flex service made public transit an option in areas where it hadn’t been for decades.
Also in 2023, TARTA extended fixed route service to Springfield Township and Holland. In 2024, the City of Oregon received fixed route, paratransit, and Flex service for the first time. TARTA also increased frequency on Route 2 – which connects Sylvania to Oregon – leading to a 56 percent year-over-year increase in ridership on that route and a 22 percent overall hike in ridership in 2024.
In 2024, TARPS was rebranded as TARTA Move, offering a new look to paratransit services that possess a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating. 2024 also saw the first few vehicles of the TARTA Zero campaign to field a zero-emission fleet hit campus, with five plug-in electric paratransit vehicles put into service. TARTA is expecting delivery of electric buses in the coming months and years, and has a goal of reaching a full fleet of zero-emission vehicles by 2040.
TARTA continues to seek innovative, efficient, and cost-effective ways to connect families to the essential destinations in their community, and ways to make commuting the easiest part of the day for customers.
Empowering people to make connections.