PA: Bellefonte drops CATA services, will start ‘experimental’ partnership with county

After months of negotiations between CATA and Bellefonte Borough’s Transportation Task Force, the borough council voted unanimously Monday to end its partnership with the authority and is now looking toward the county to help fill its public transit needs.

With CATA’s Bellefonte services — the Bellefonte/Benner B-Line and CATAGo — ending on July 1, the council has entered into a new partnership with the Centre County Office of Transportation.

No other municipality in the county has such an arrangement, with the borough subsidizing rides for its residents through the county’s shared-ride, on-demand bus service.

“We were with CATA for 50 years,” said council member Joanne Tosti-Vasey, a member of the task force. “This was a hard decision to make because we had the long-term relationship, but considering the cost and the concerns that we had for people, particularly people who need to get to work, we felt that this alternative was a better option.”

Currently, the county offers a door-to-door pickup and drop-off service, with riders having to schedule their trips by 2 p.m. the day before the ride is needed. The service can transport riders anywhere in the county, not just to partnered municipalities — a feature that CATA does not offer.

According to Dave Lomison, the county’s transportation director, the residents that would see their trips subsidized by the borough are primarily between the ages of 19 and 59, and don’t already qualify for free or reduced-cost rides.

While it has yet to be determined what portion of the county’s standard $25 ride fare would be subsidized by the borough, Tosti-Vasey said that the council is leaning toward covering $20 of it, leaving $5 to be paid by the rider.

Currently, riders with disabilities can utilize the county’s transportation service for a flat $4.25 rate each way, with people over 60 riding for free. Only around 1% of riders actually pay the full fare, and Lomison believes that even more borough residents could be eligible for free/reduced-cost rides, and just don’t realize it yet.

David Lomison, the Centre County Office of Transportation’ director, shows how the lift works on one of the county’s mini-buses in this file photo. Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times, file

The new service could start in the next few weeks, Lomison said, but council members must first create eligibility guidelines for rides.

“You would have to establish limitations, if any, for non-medical or non-work trips — how often can somebody use it for those purposes?” Lomison said.

The funding that the borough will use to subsidize the rides comes from the $36,000 that was allocated for public transportation in its 2025 budget.

Originally, that money was earmarked to pay CATA for another year of services, but after receiving an increased fee from the authority in February for $60,000, negotiations between the borough’s task force and CATA broke down, leaving the group to seek out other transit options.

The borough’s relationship with the authority was strained before February, too. Last May the council voted to withdraw from its CATA partnership after facing cost issues with the previously provided service.

Because the new partnership with the county is an unprecedented one, the amount of riders being picked up, the demographic of those riders and the partnership’s total cost is not known. However, council member Doug Johnson offered reassurance that the borough could make budget changes to fund the partnership if its costs ended up exceeding the amount of money the borough puts into it.

“We’ll use that funding, we’ll see how it goes, and if at the end of the day it’s gone, it’s gone, and we’ll have to make (funding) adjustments when we can,” Johnson said. “This is an experimental thing. ... Will it be perfect? Probably not, but we have to start somewhere, and I look at this as a great opportunity.”

Currently, the county doesn’t allow rides to be scheduled before 8 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Those stipulations left council member Deborah Cleeton, a task force member, concerned about servicing residents who work irregular shifts, but Lomison said that adjustments to the service’s current hours could be made after the borough finalizes its subsidized ride criteria.

“We won’t leave anyone hanging,” he said.

Another concern shared by council members is the county’s ability to take on the borough’s residents that used CATA’s services, but Lomison said that, based on the information provided to him by CATA, the county could “easily absorb” them.

Moving forward, the borough council’s next task is finalizing eligibility criteria for subsidized rides, and informing the public on how the new partnership works. Updates are expected to be provided at future borough council meetings.

The Bellefonte Borough Council typically meets for a work session at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month. The council holds its regular meetings at 7:30 p.m., after the work sessions.

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