Hartsville bus service begins

By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net

Getting around Hartsville just got a lot easier.

As of May 6, the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority (PDRTA) now offers bus service to many of the city’s top destinations – and it’s absolutely free to ride.

The HART service, aka Hartsville Free Transit, will operate Monday through Saturday, taking riders to 16 stops.

These include medical facilities, shopping centers and grocery stores, restaurants, schools and some apartment complexes.

While similar services have operated in Florence and Darlington for several years, HART marks the culmination of long efforts to bring affordable busing to Hartsville.

“This goes back a few years,” says Don Strickland, PDRTA interim executive director.

“We’ve had several different agencies reach out to us and express the need and desire to have a reliable public transportation service back in the city of Hartsville.”

To get HART up and running, PDRTA needed partners, and found a major supporter in CareSouth. Strickland says that one of the main reasons people miss their medical appointments is a lack of transportation, and he says that CareSouth wanted to pitch in and help remove that barrier for their Hartsville area patients.

Other partners include Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center, Coker College and the Coker Foundation, Vantage Point, the City of Hartsville, Darlington County Free Clinic, First Steps, Habitat for Humanity and Pee Dee Mental Health.

Such partnerships are crucial to keeping the service going, says Strickland. He notes that PDRTA gets about two-thirds of its funding from the federal government, and the remaining one-third comes from local matching funds secured by teaming with local governments and businesses. Money collected through fares cannot be used as local matching funds.

Strickland says PDRTA wants the HART buses to serve a variety of riders who may not have their own cars and cannot bear the expense of taking taxis. He says the buses will offer flexibility and options to senior citizens, students, and low-income residents seeking an efficient and safe way to trek around town.

“All of our drivers are CPR-certified and we put them through the wringer when they’re training, so they are all really great drivers,” says Strickland. “They treat their passengers like family.”

HART buses are equipped with bike racks, are wheelchair accessible, and accommodate service animals only.

While the initial route is already set, it is not set in stone. Changes can be made to cut unpopular stops or to add new stops if the ridership requests them.

“If certain areas are not doing what they need to, in terms of ridership levels, it’s okay to alter the route and target an area where it’s needed,” says Strickland.

For those who wish to track their PDRTA bus location in real time, a new smartphone application will debut in a few weeks.

“In Hartsville, they would be able to pull up the HART route at any time and see exactly where the bus is,” says Strickland. “That really comes in handy when it’s over 100 degrees outside in summer or 25 degrees in January, so you don’t have to stand waiting at a bus stop for 15 minutes to be sure you don’t miss the bus. You can track the bus and time your arrival so you get there just a few minutes before the bus does.”

Author: Stephan Drew

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