As the number of Boone County manufacturing and distribution centers grows, so do the requests for bus service. The topic came up at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Eggs 'N Issues Tuesday.Armor USA Vice President for Operations Ryan Heitkamp says he has an employee who takes a "crazy" bus route.
"He was going to the airport and then hopefully he would catch another bus and he would get to where we were at off Aviation [Boulevard in Hebron] but a lot of times he would just call somebody from the office to go pick him up," Heitkamp says.
The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) says it's shifting more routes away from downtown Cincinnati to serve an increasing number of employees in Boone County, including the $1.5 billion Amazon hubplanned at CVG. Just this week TANK arranged transportation for another Amazon facility on Litton Lane.
TANK Deputy General Manager Gina Douthat agrees providing bus service to everyone is a challenge.
"You find that we stay on the main roads more often then going down these small side streets and that means sometimes either people have to walk at the end of their trip. They have a half mile walk from the bus stop to the front door of the businesses," she says. "We do have a lot of companies that provide that last mile for their employees."
She compares Boone County industrial parks to a main road with lots of cul de sacs. According to Douthat, "Transit service can't go down every cul de sac. We have to try to meet the majority of the demand and needs without inconveniencing ten people to serve one."
