Lyon County PRIDE bus service halted

Lyon County bus services halted Friday when the Elko contractor operating the routes pulled out for non-payment.

K-T Contract Service, which operates the Lyon County portion of the PRIDE bus line, ceased operations this week after managers learned there was little chance they would be paid in the near future, according to general manager John Byrne.

"The funding was not coming down from the federal government," Byrne said Friday. "With no foreseeable end to the funding issue in sight, we decided we had to stop service."

Byrne said the company has not been paid for five months, and although it received word that funding was approved for October and November, there is no money in the budget for July through September.

"As long as funding was available, we said we would do what we could to keep a transit system available," he said. "When it became clear there was no money available we went and shut down."

Byrne said nearly a dozen drivers were laid off as a result of the shutdown.

"This is not something we wanted to do," he said. "People need to understand that we're not out to leave anybody stranded. We knew there might be some delays in getting paid, but it got to the point earlier this week where there was no funding source on the horizon and we had no choice."

According to Chuck Ricker of the Northern Nevada Transit Coalition, 3,000 to 4,000 people a month rode the Lyon County route that included stops in Dayton and Silver Springs.

He said the state is working to restore the bus service.

"It's dying, but NDOT is working to keep it alive," he said. "There is no bus, but it is not totally official that it's over yet. There are a lot of people working on this issue and hopefully we can get it resolved."

Bus service linking Lyon County to Carson City started in June 2001.