Business View Magazine | July 2020

141 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2020 NANTUCKET REGIONAL TRANS I T AUTHOR I TY (NRTA) round service began in the spring of 2018. Currently, the NRTA owns 19 fixed route and four demand response vehicles. Funding sources for the NRTA include local assessment, state contract assistance, and federal operating assistance. Capital funding is provided through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Transportation RTACap Program, with an occasion input of capital funds from Federal Programs. Additional sources of funding include, transportation revenues (fares, pass sales and brokerage services), and advertising. According to Leary, “During the summer season, we carry almost 300,000 riders. With people not bringing their cars, we need to provide beach service and we need to service outlying areas of the island and get people to where they want to go. Our passengers are day-trippers, year- round residents, seasonal employees, elderly, disabled, people staying in guest houses, people with summer homes here, people renting homes until recently, we were a summer seasonal service. Now, we’re up to nine routes and 13 buses in the heart of the summer and we’re servicing “coast to coast”– Surfside to Jetties and Madaket to Sconset. We cater to a lot of different demographics and provide service to meet the needs of the diverse community we serve. In the late ‘90s, there was a big push to not bring your car on the island. But up until then there were few alternatives So that was the start of the Transit Authority in Nantucket.” The Nantucket Regional Transit Authority (NRTA) was created by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 161B in 1993, although operations did not begin until 1995. Officially, the NRTA is a body politic and corporate and a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The affairs of the Authority are handled by the Administrator appointed by the Advisory Board. The NRTA began providing seasonal fixed route service in 1995 and year- round demand response service in 2001. Year-