by Jolene Toves

Guam - Guam Regional Transit Authority chief planner Felixberto Dungca says there are several major projects underway for 2013. Among these projects is the $1.5 million procurement grant for eight para-transit buses and four fixed-route buses. GRTA is also hoping to finalize by the middle of this year a long-term transit contract and the creation of a one call-once click center.

"The remaining $300,000 of our grant is to create and staff a one-call, one-click center central dispatching," Dungca explained to KUAM News, "because right now there are several entities who provide transportation." He anticipates the center and the Guam Regional Transit Authority to be housed in the same building.

In addition to these projects, the agency plans to implement new expanded transit routes early this year that will provide service to areas in Guam that were not serviced before.

Along with expanded routes, GRTA will implement new schedules. The hours of service will be extended from 5:30am to 7:30pm. Dungca says the four-hour gap between services, which was an issue for riders, will also addressed - shortening that gap to a two-hour period and providing riders with more hours of service Monday through Saturday.

"We revised the bus routes and schedules because there's a lot of shortfalls in the current services we offer, so we completed that through a series of meetings we revised the entire schedule those schedules are going to go up for three public hearings," he said.

The new transit routs and schedules are scheduled to go into effect on March 1.