New Public Transportation System is coming to Twin Falls

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — There will be a new public transportation system coming to Twin Falls.

When the city of Twin Falls hit 50,000 people, it lost its grant funding for the Trans IV public transportation system, causing the city to re-evaluate its public transportation needs.

“Traditional fixed route busing in a community like Twin Falls is not going to be successful, in order for a fixed route to serve the individuals in a community that it needs to, you have to have a lot of different routes,” said Mandi Thompson, the assistant to the city manager.

Now, thanks to a 3 million dollar grant from the Idaho Transportation Department using CARES Act funds, they will be able to try out a pilot program, like the one that Idaho Falls is using, called Micro-Transit.

“Uber or Lyft for public transportation, it’s on demand service and its very similar to how Trans IV used to operate, where an individual can request a ride, and that ride can kind of behind the scenes a software will dispatch a ride to an individual,” said Thompson.

The city says that this is not a solution for congestion, but rather giving people with no other means of transportation, a way to get around.

“As more and more people move to Twin Falls, we are going to see a demand, I actually received a phone call from a woman who is thinking of moving to Twin Falls, and needed to know what the public transportation system is because she’s disabled,” said Thompson.

It will be open to everyone though. She hopes it will be off and running by April of 2023.

“The next step in the process, now that we’ve received the funding is we are going to release a request for proposal, and then there will be a period of time when the RFP is open, we’ll receive requests from companies that will actually operate the system on our behalf,” said Thompson.

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