kids encyclopedia robot

Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority (BARTA) is a public transportation system in Reading, Pennsylvania. BARTA helps people travel around the area using buses. They have a fleet of 52 buses, and many of them are special "hybrid" buses. These hybrid buses use both a regular engine and an electric motor, which helps save fuel and is better for the environment.

BARTA's Bus Fleet

BARTA uses different types of buses to serve the community. Most of their buses are made by a company called Gillig. They have buses of different sizes, including 35-foot and 40-foot long models. Many of the newer buses are hybrid electric, showing BARTA's commitment to using more eco-friendly transportation.

Current Buses

BARTA's current fleet includes many modern buses.

  • Some of their older buses from 2007 are being retired.
  • They have Gillig BRT buses from 2008 and 2009.
  • A large part of their fleet consists of hybrid electric buses from 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. These buses are designed to be more fuel-efficient.
  • Some of the 2019 hybrid buses are actually owned by the SCTA (Schuylkill County Transportation Authority) and are shared with BARTA. A few of these buses were even leased to another transit system called Red Rose Transit for a while.

Buses That Have Retired

Over time, older buses are taken out of service, or "retired," to make way for newer models. As of November 2015, several buses had been retired from BARTA's fleet.

  • Some of the retired buses were Optima Opus models from 2003 and 2004. One of these buses (0304) was taken out of service after a fire in 2008.
  • Other retired buses included New Flyer and Gillig Low Floor models from 2003 and 2004.
  • Interestingly, some of BARTA's retired buses found new homes! For example, two 2004 Optima Opus buses were donated to the Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center. Students there can use these buses for hands-on training, learning how to work on real bus engines and systems.
  • Also, four other Optima Opus buses were leased to another transit system called COLTS (County of Lackawanna Transit System) in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 2017. This helped COLTS when they needed more buses.
  • Some Gillig Low Floor buses from 2004 were even moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to be used by their transit system, CATS.

Images for kids

  • ReadingCherrySttreetEntrance

    The Reading Franklin Street train terminal was converted to a bus terminal in 2013. Buses enter from Cherry Street.

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.