| Amy Matzke-Fawcett

amy.matzke-fawcett@roanoke.com, 381-1674

RADFORD -- The city council heard updates Monday night on a study that may determine the future of public transit in the city.

Radford and Radford University will benefit from a grant given late last month by the Virginia Department of Rails and Transit to enlist a professional consultant to study the possibility of bringing public transit to the city.

The study, scheduled to be complete by November, was contracted by the state to KFH Group through Cambridge Systems, for more than $91,400.

The city has been without bus service since 1981. The university runs a limited bus service for students called the Tartan Transit.

The grant proposal submitted in January asked for $40,000 from the state and required a $4,000 match from the city. The fact that the grant was nearly doubled and didn't require a match from the city is important, transit committee chairwoman Vicky Collins told the council Monday.

"I think that spoke to how much the DRPT is invested in seeing this done and done well," Collins said.

If the study shows that the city and university would benefit from services, the next round of grant applications would be due by Feb. 1, Collins said.

Input from residents and students about transportation will be gathered over the coming months, but the exact methods are still being determined.

One variable is that, because students don't return to campus until August, it will take some time to get their input, said James Hurt, city engineer and member of the transit committee.

A joint meeting last Friday between university and city officials also focused on transit and parking on campus.

Depending on the findings of the study, a partnership with the Blacksburg Transit, university and city could be a possibility, university leaders said.

Eventually, the university would like to impose a rule banning freshmen from bringing cars to campus, but it can't until alternative transportation is provided, university President Penny Kyle said. The university has also discussed hiring a parking consultant.

Tartan Transit's shuttles loop from the campus's academic buildings to the Dedmon Center and Hunter's Ridge apartments and takes students to nearby Fairlawn to shop. The shuttles stop running by 10 p.m. most nights, and they don't run on Saturdays or during the summer break.

In January, Hurt said there have been two previous attempts to bring buses back to Radford since the service stopped, but neither had made much progress.

Nationally, nearly 2.6 billion trips were taken on public transportation in the first quarter of 2009, according to the American Public Transportation Association.