The Fairmont Marion County Transit Authority (FMCTA) provides public transportation to the citizens of Fairmont and Marion County, West Virginia, United States.
History On December 31, 1971, the City Lines buses ended service in Marion County and Fairmont, West Virginia. This left the citizens of the area without any type of mass transit. The inauguration of a new system lasted over a year and a half.
In January 1973, the governing bodies of Marion County and Fairmont formed the Fairmont Marion County Transit Authority (FMCTA) as a separate government entity, funded equally at $60,000 by each of the bodies. The planning, purchasing, scheduling and recruitment process lasted five months. On June 7, 1973, the seventeen-month period of no transit ended with the operation of FMCTA's first bus.
May 23, 1973 Michael Pasquale was named Manager / Dispatcher and since that time Woody Conrad served 11 years, H. B. Herb Pudder served 5 years, Joe Rager 12 years and George Levitsky(2nd Certified Community Transit Manager in WV, was Community Transit Association of America's Manager of the Year in 2009) served 21 years, as Managers of the Transit Authority. In January 2024 Jeff Mullenax was named General Manager by the Authority's board of directors. The Transit Authority celebrated serving Marion County with public transportation for 50 years in 2023. In 2014 US Senator Joe Manchin, Delegates Mike Caputo, Tim Manchin and Linda Longstreth, and Governor Tomblin offered congratulatory letters and a citation from the House of Delegates of the West Virginia Legislature.
Originally service operated on seven routes in and around Fairmont plue five additional routes serving rural communities. The original routes were West End, East Side, Rivesville, Barrackville (with select trips to Chesapeake), Watson/Mall, Monongah (with select trips to Worthington) and Jackson Addition. Weekly routes were Kingmont and Manningotn on Tuesdays, Carolina, Fairview and later Colfax on Wednesdays).
Soon after, FMCTA began to expand the service area. The original fleet of buses consisted of Mercedes-Benz buses and later in the 1980s of Flexettes which were light duty buses built by Flexible. Grumman-Olsens (which look like bread trucks) were added for rural route service. Large Bluebirds which resembled school buses were bought to use on charters and interstate trips until insurance became cost prohibitive. They were by far the largest buses operated by FMCTA with 41 seats. The fleet for many years consisted of Goshen Coach buses, Ford mid-sized buses, vans and a trolley. The fleet now stands around 30 vehicles that have various seating capacities ranging from four to thirty two seats and are fully equipped to meet the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) specifications and 4 non ADA service vehicles.
Riders
Clientele of the FMCTA are primarily senior citizens, the transportationally disadvantaged, and persons of lower income. Other riders include Fairmont State University students, commuters looking for an economically advantageous alternative to driving, and customers aware of the environmental benefits that transit provides.
Funding
When FMCTA began, it was well received by the community and turned a profit at the end of its first Fiscal Year, 1975. The Board of Directors were determined that the Authority could operate at half the funding level and thus cut the funding by fifty percent. In 1978, the City of Fairmont began to cut funding and managed to exclude transit funding entirely. Marion County continued funding until it too discontinued funding for transit in 1988. Currently, the Authority's greatest source of income is provided by the countywide levy providing 75% of the annual budget. The remaining amount comes from federal highway taxes and farebox revenue.
Facility
When the FMCTA began service in 1973, service was provided out of a bus garage on Maryland Avenue in Fairmont. In 1980, the Authority was given a federal grant to build a new facility which included a garage, maintenance and office space as well as bus parking and fueling stations. In 1996, additional equipment parking was added in the lot adjacent to the new facility on Quincy Street. Another floor was added to garage in 2007 as well as additional parking. In May 2015 the transfer station was moved from on the street by the courthouse to a renovated 4 story stucco building located @ 401 Monroe Street with a cover area for waiting and Monday through Friday an indoor waiting area for our passengers.
Fares
Fares range from $.50 in the core of the city to $2.00 on trips to Clarksburg or Morgantown. Fares increase at $.25 increments as the bus gets further from downtown. Transfers are free and only valid at the Transfer station. In the late 80s, for a short time, the base fare increased to $.75. This placed a hardship on the locals and the base fare returned to $.50 after the passage of the first excess levy in 1988. In July 2016 the board approved along with the County Commission that veterans, upon registering for a pass, could ride for free anywhere their fixed routes travel.
Destination signs
The first Mercedes buses lacked destination signs to tell the passengers where the bus was going. Makeshift signs were made on pieces of cardboard scrawled on by a black marker. This issue was solved as more buses were purchased. The first bunch of Goshens purchased only had the overhead scroll sign and lacked a sign on the side of the buses. The next batch of buses purchased in the 1990s solved this issue, however it was tough convincing the bus drivers to use the side destination sign and it often remained on white blank or it was removed completely. New scrolls were purchased for the older buses and came equipped in the newer buses with exposures reading Out of Service and Garage. These were added to end confusion of passengers when buses return to the Courthouse at the end of a trip to discharge passengers only. Waiting passengers have no way of knowing the bus is only dropping off passengers and they often approach the bus only to be told the driver is going to the garage. Unfortunately, these helpful exposures are never displayed. The first bus with an electronic destination sign was a Champion brand bus added in 2006 which will hopefully put an end to the white blank days which at times appeared on the front of buses as well when there was not real signage available. This was the case for new or experimental routes such as those to Clarksburg Malls, Montana and Bunner's Ridge.
Routes
Originally bus service operated over seven routes serving Fairmont plus five routes which operated weekly to surrounding rural communities. Daily routes operated were West End, East Side, Rivesville, Barrackville (with some trips extending to Chesapeake), Watson/Mall, Monongah (with some trips extending to Worthington) and Jackson Addition. Rural routes included Kingmont and Mannington which both operated on Tuesdays, Carolina, Fairview and Colfax operating on Wednesdays. There was also a route that went to Fairview via Barrackville and Monumental as well as the current Fairview route via Rivesville.
The Fairmont-Marion County Transit Authority (FMCTA) currently serves most of the county as well as the I-79 corridor. The system covers 16 routes with various trip patterns. Service operates Monday through Friday between 7 am and 6 pm with five routes operating on Saturday between 8 am and 5 pm. Comparable ADA Paratransit service is also provided to complement the fixed routes. The buses use a pulse system that has all routes converging at a single transfer point in downtown Fairmont on Jefferson Street next to the Marion County Courthouse.
FMCTA provides service to the major towns in Marion County, including Fairmont, Mannington, Fairview, Rivesville, Barrackville, Pleasant Valley and White Hall. Service is also provided to Clarksburg to the malls and the Veterans' Hospital as well as service to Morgantown to Ruby Memorial Hospital.
Core routes include the Edgemont Loop, Watson/Mall and Mount Harmony. Other routes serve Barrackville, Carolina, Unity Terrace, Jackson Addition, Mannington, Pleasant Valley, Rivesville and Fairview. All routes operate weekdays while only core service operates Saturdays. Saturday service was started in the mid-1980s. Sunday service has never been provided. Weekday evening service existed for a few years in the early 90s but after proving to be unsuccessful, it was discontinued. Two evening trips were again added in 2007 to serve the Mall and Fairmont State University but they have since been discontinued.
Current routes
Barrackville Until the mid-1980s, service operated out Route 250 and through Barrackville to the coal mine hourly with some trips extending to Chesapeake. In the mid-1980s, service was reduced to the current schedule of four trips a day running about 2–3 hours apart. Three trips are provided on Saturday as well. In May 2008, the last trip of the day was combined with the last trip to Metz. This last trip has since been separated out from the Mannington trip.
Campus Loop This route began in October 2013 and leaves the Courthouse at 9, 10, 12, 2 and 4 operating via Locust Avenue, circling the University to the Feaster Center then returning downtown via Oakwood Road and Fairmont Avenue.
Carolina/Worthington Service originally operated twice one day a week. This service in the mid-1980s absorbed service to Worthington and Monongah and operated four trips a day out Locust Avenue and US 19 to Monongah and into Carolina via State Route 218 to 4th Street. Service used to travel to Worthington before going to Carolina but that ended when the VA Hospital route was initiated, which serves Worthington, West Virginia on its way to Clarksburg. The last trip of the day leaving the Courthouse at 5:10 pm was the first to be discontinued in the early 90s and most recently in 2004 the 330pm trip was discontinued. This trip was unique in that it was signed Mannington and traveled from downtown via Fairmont Avenue then cutting over to Locust Avenue via 7th Street, providing the only service on 7th Street. From Locust it continued as the regular Carolina bus would then from Carolina cut over to Route 250 and resumed the Mannington route via Farmington and Rachel to Mannington. The trip then returned to Fairmont via Route 250. The remaining two trips alternate their trip pattern to Carolina. The first trip operates via Fairmont Ave to Carolina, returning via Locust and the next trip operates in the reverse pattern.
Clarksburg Malls This route began in the mid-1990s. Until the late 1990s, when new buses were purchased, there was no destination sign available for this route so a white blank was displayed with a nicely printed sign placed in the front window reading Meadowbrook. Three of the Watson/Mall trips that left the Courthouse at 30 after the hour were converted to this route. Until 2007 when the last trip was eliminated, service operated three times a day from downtown to Meadowbrook Mall via Locust, Country Club, US 250, Middletown Mall, I-79, Newpoint and Eastpoint to Meadowbrook. The route returns to downtown Fairmont via I-79, Middletown and the same route. In fall 2007, service was reduced to operate only on Wednesdays. The service now serves the Walmart in White hall and operates out Fairmont Avenue instead of Locust. In spring 2009, this was further reduced to operate only the first three Wednesdays of the month. The last Wednesday the trip operates to Morgantown Mall instead.
Edgemont Loop