Metro Transit (Omaha)
Metro Transit, previously known as Metro Area Transit, is Omaha, Nebraska's local mass transportation provider. Metro currently operates around 135 buses throughout the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, including Bellevue, Ralston, La Vista, and Papillion in Nebraska and Council Bluffs in Iowa. Operated by the Omaha Transit Authority, a governmental subdivision of the State of Nebraska, Metro's board consists of a five-member board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Omaha City Council and the Douglas County Commissioners. The first board was sworn in and took office on May 30, 1972. The agency  receives funds from local, state, and federal sources. The city has equipped its buses with bicycle carriers and onboard Wifi. On August 23, 2010, Metro Area Transit was rebranded as Metro. The service hours of the entire system are generally from about 4:30 am-1:00 am on weekdays, 5:00 am-midnight on Saturdays, and 6:00 am-9:30 pm on Sundays, with many routes operating a shorter span. (Some routes operate as rush hour-only, weekday-only, or Monday-Saturday only) COVID Effects on Metro Transit. On March 13, 2020, following the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, Metro Transit took an initiative to  reduce the effects on low ridership, social distancing, and direct contact between drivers and transit riders. As a result, multiple routes were decreased in the number of vehicles and daily trips by almost half. The routes that remained unaffected by this were Route 2, 18, 24, and 30, as these routes experienced less than a 20% decrease in ridership. Other routes resulted in a reduction of service throughout peak, midday, and evening times. However, after three months of reduced services, on July 14, 2020, Metro Transit announced that some routes would increase service to the standard before the COVID-19 outbreak . As a response, ridership numbers did increase, but not to the same standard pre-pandemic. Metro Transit made no further changes to service frequency until ORBT launched later the same year. A few months following the launch of ORBT on February 1, 2021, Metro Transit took further initiatives to increase the health and safety of riders and drivers. As such, services that would serve a reduced frequency during the midday would receive additional cleaning to comply with CDC standards to disinfect busses at the end of each route. In addition, Metro Transit also installed safety shields between the driver compartment  and the ticketing machine. ORBT, Omaha Rapid Bus Transit. Launched on November 18, 2020, the ORBT line was introduced into the Metro Transit system as the first Rapid Transit Bus line in Omaha and the state of Nebraska. This service has been running along Dodge St in place of the previous route 2. With fewer stops and higher service frequency, Metro Transit increased the daily round trips on Dodge Street from 65 to 100 busses on weekdays. This change also meant that 9 out of 10 riders that traveled on Dodge Street would be within three blocks or less to  an ORBT Station or stop. The stops in order can be seen below. For the first 11 months of service, ORBT remained a free service for riders traveling on Dodge Street. Still, after the announcement of UMO, a contactless payment system created by Metro Transit, ORBT stated to collect fares via UMO or through QR Code Tickets dispensed at the stations located along the route. OBRT Remains a contactless boarding service and the only service in the Metro Transit network to not accept paper tickets aside from the QR Code paper slips. MetroNEXT. Announced by Metro Transit on February 25 , 2021, MetroNEXT is a public initiative to determine what direction Metro Transit should take in developing the existing public transit network. For some time, public input was excepted, and Metro Transit made further development into the MetroNEXT initiative. As a result, in late March of 2021, round one of the initiative included a rough understanding of the individual communities and landscape that may limit service expansion and frequency. Round 2, held from mid-November to early December of 2021, to frame the future of the transit network. Round 3 and 4 have yet to be held as of November 2021 , but it is planned to occur in early 2022. For more info, please visit https://www.ometro.com/metronext/ Transit Centers. Transit Centers in Omaha are an important part of Metro's system. Since 2006, many transit centers have been built or removed. Those removed were the Crossroads Transit Center in 2006, the Stockyards Transit Center in South Omaha which was replaced by Metro College Transit Center in 2007 and the Benson Park Transit Center in 2020. Others added were the Westroads Transit Center near Westroads Mall. Two other major meeting places recently upgraded to transit Center status are the Aksarben Transit Center in  south central Omaha, and 76th Street Transit Center near Crossroads Mall. Both are not currently equipped with all of the amenities typically expected with a transit center, but are planned for upgrade. As of December 2012, Omaha's most used transit center, North Omaha Transit Center, has been rebuilt. Currently being phased out as construction nears, a new Downtown Transit Center is planned for the area. Rebranding. In an effort to shed the stigma associated with the Metro Area Transit name, the new Metro brand was adopted on August 23, 2010. Along with their new light blue outlined "M" logo , the message of an organization that is modern and looking to the future was conveyed. In just a short time after the rebranding, Metro worked hard to keep good on their pledge to provide better service, and a large amount of improvements were made.