A plan that would bring Lextran bus service to Jessamine County is still being ironed out, according to Jessamine County Chamber of Commerce director Amy Cloud.
During Monday’s Nicholasville City Commission workshop, Cloud told that body and those in attendance that the plan is moving forward.
“We’re still in the process of getting Lextran bus service to Brannon Crossing and Sam's parking lot,” Cloud said.
Cloud said she’s heard the concerns that Lextran will only service the north end of the county and said preliminary talks have taken place with Bluegrass Community Action to provide shuttle service from other parts of the community to Sam’s Club and Brannon Crossing to connect with the bus service.
“Once we get that vein connected, then (Bluegrass Community Action) will be able to (offer limited) service,” Cloud said. “They already have the buses and the drivers to help out Jessamine County, Nicholasville and Wilmore.”
Last summer, Cloud announced a pilot program with Lextran that was supposed to start in September, but the committee has hit a hitch during the course of discussions.
“Right now, we’re working with Lextran to get that initial vein finalized with a grant with help from city and county governments,” Cloud said.
She added that there was no time frame for when the bus service would start because the scope of the project has increased.
“It’s expanded from what we initially focused on,” Cloud said. “They're going to put together a whole plan to study cost-effectiveness and appropriate alternatives to address the U.S. 27 corridor from downtown Lexington to Jessamine County.”
Cloud is confident that the program will be launched.
“We’re going through the right steps to make it better because we’ve had so much input,” she said. “The folks from the Bluegrass Community Action have talked to me about trying to incorporate a plan within the community, if we can get the Lextran stops in. That’s the next phase, but there’s nothing concrete about that; we’ve just had conversations.”
Once launched, the bus service would pick up and drop off at Sam’s Club on Kohl’s Drive and at a yet-to-be-named location in Brannon Crossing.
From there, it would travel to Walmart at the corner of Man O’ War and Nicholasville Road in Lexington. It would directly travel next to Central Baptist, then to University of Kentucky Medical Center and finally to the downtown transfer station. There would be no stops between, Cloud said in June 2012.
