Ozark Regional Transit express route targets commuters between Fayetteville, Bentonville

Ozark Regional Transit will start the first express route in Northwest Arkansas using a 55-seat coach-style bus, according to a news release. Starting Jan. 2, the Commuter Express route will run from Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville to a business area adjacent to Wal-Mart Stores home office in Bentonville.

Target customers are those who would rather work, instead of drive to their places of employment, “thereby allowing for more discretionary time in the evenings,” the release shows. ORT is establishing this new route in conjunction with NWA Emerging Leaders, a young professionals organization.

ORT recently received the first of three MCI-D4505 Motor-Coaches for the route and has been retrofitting it. Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department is giving the buses to ORT without charge, executive director Joel Gardner said. Jefferson Lines turned over the buses, valued at $200,000 to $300,000 each, to the highway department after they reached the end of their usable life, but Gardner expects to get at least two years of use from them.

The weekday route will depart at 6:45 a.m. starting Jan. 2 in the south parking lot of the Northwest Arkansas Mall at JCPenney in Fayetteville and arrive at 7:30 a.m. at Eighth and Southwest F streets in Bentonville. The bus will depart from there at 5 p.m., returning to Fayetteville.

Customers can purchase monthly reservations for the route on ORT’s website for $160, which is about $8 per day for a roundtrip and includes free Wi-Fi. Passengers will soon be able to transport their bicycles on the route. Passengers who don’t buy monthly reservations will pay $6 for a one-way ride or $12 for a roundtrip.