When Metro in Cincinnati decided to tell the story of the benefits of public transportation to its public, the agency chose to use the largest backdrops in its fleet—the five 60-foot articulated buses that joined the fleet at dedication ceremonies Dec. 4, 2009. The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, originally built in 1933 as a railroad station, served as the setting for the event.

Metro Chief Executive Officer Marilyn Shazor was so impressed by APTA’s “Public Transportation Takes Us There” campaign that she made it the foundation of the system’s marketing and public relations efforts for 2010. The campaign emphasizes how public transportation helps the nation move forward, focusing on “Three Es (economy, energy, and the environment) and a Q (leading to a better quality of life).”

Four of the articulated buses have different exterior color themes—blue, economy; green, environment; red, energy; and yellow, quality of life—while the fifth showcases all four colors and themes. All have the APTA message on the back.

Each of these buses can carry up to 50 percent more riders than a standard bus at about the same operating cost. Metro will run them on its busiest routes to add capacity at a time when service is being reduced because of budget concerns.

Shazor called the buses “workhorses” that will “allow us to carry more customers per bus and increase the efficiency on routes that are frequently crowded. This is especially important now as we try to stretch every dollar to serve as many customers as possible with a smaller budget.”

The new buses will provide service on three routes along the Reading Road Corridor that account for 10 percent of overall system ridership and connect the region’s two largest employment centers, downtown and uptown.

The articulated buses replace old buses that were beyond their useful life. They cost just over $611,000 each, funded primarily with federal Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality money made possible through Ohio DOT and the OKI Regional Council of Governments.

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