SALISBURY — At the Feb. 20 Salisbury City Council meeting, Deputy City Manager Richard White and Transit Director Rodney Harrison gave an update on where things stand with the microtransit pilot program that has been a “priority” for the city in recent years. 

City Manager Jim Greene said over the past few weeks, council members have reached out to him asking for an update on microtransit. This was precipitated by the city of Gastonia approving their own microtransit system a month ago. 

“That would give us the benefit of maybe having a close neighbor in Gastonia implementing the whole thing and we can learn from them,” Mayor Karen Alexander said.

In 2023, Salisbury received a grant worth $2,895,000 over three years from both the state and federal government. The grant has since been approved by the Federal Transit Administration and it will go to the United States Secretary of Transportation in Washington D.C. for additional approval, which should take two to three months. The grant will then go back to the North Carolina Department of Transportation Integrated Mobility Division and they will take one month to complete the grant in order to allow Salisbury to begin spending the funds. The city will be given the money in June or July according to White.

The pilot program will cover one of the city’s public transit routes that goes through Salisbury, Spencer, East Spencer, the VA Medical Center and the Novant Rowan Health Medical Center. The program will use the Transportation-As-A-Service method (TaaS), where a company hired by the city will be in charge of a majority of the operation like drivers, vehicles, and management. White said Salisbury is developing request for proposals that will be sent out to potential vendors once funding is delivered. Salisbury is also anticipating the arrival of two electric vehicles for the program from Ohio-based company Endera in June. 

White said once the grant is officially approved, the state and the integrated mobility division can work with Salisbury to possibly “modify” the program if the city decides it needs to make any changes to it.