HART buses might soon pick you up at your house

You're about to have one less excuse for not taking the bus.

HART is on the cusp of creating Hillsborough County's first community-based bus service, which would allow people near established routes through Brandon, Seffner, Ruskin and Wimauma/Sun City Center to call for pick-up service.

The HARTFlex buses would operate along a designated route with official bus stops. They would go up to three-quarters of a mile from the designated route to pick up customers who call in.

Customers could call for rides from seven days to three hours before they need to be picked up.

The name "Flex Service'' comes because after the buses pick up someone from their home, the buses then would take the shortest and quickest route back to their designated route, operations manager Joe Escobedo said.

The recommended fare is $1 per passenger and 50 cents for seniors. HART plans a model project over six months to determine how well the system works.

Now is an ideal time to launch the service because funding is available from various federal and local sources, HART chief executive David Armijo said. HART had a plan two years ago for the HARTFlex program, but it was put on hold.

HART would purchase six buses - one for each route and two as back-ups - for a total of $552,000. The operations for a full 12 months would cost $1.3 million and require 21 employees.

Three of the routes are modified loop patterns, with buses circulating in one direction.

The Brandon route would be 13.8 miles; with more than two dozen major stops, including Brandon Hospital, the post office, and Home Depot, Winn Dixie, Publix and Wal-Mart stores.

The Seffner FLEX route would cover 11.4 miles, including the YMCA, Armwood High School, Mirror Lake Plaza and the Seffner/Mango Library.

The Ruskin FLEX route would be 12.5 miles, including the Ruskin Community Service Center, Ruskin Neighborhood Center and Sun Coast Health Center.

The Wimauma Sun City Center route would be an east/west route rather than a loop. It would run 14.6 miles, including Sun City Center Plaza, and the Wimauma Helath Center.

HART has included additional HARTFlex routes in preliminary plans that could include New Tampa, Temple Terrace, the Tampa International Airport industrial area; south Tampa/Gandy; Gibsonton; South County; Town N' Country; and Carrollwood.

New routes could be funded by a portion of a 1 cent sales tax increase that backers of improved transit, including light rail, want the county commission to put on a ballot in November 2010.

Part of the rationale for the HARTFlex service is to add service to underserved areas. Wider service also could help increase voter approval for a sales tax surcharge for transit, proponents say.