A WATA bus
Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown High School, the Governor’s Green shopping center and the Colony Square Shopping Center are among the destinations offered by the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority’s new bus route, which starts service Thursday.
Those sites and others have not traditionally been served by WATA.
The route will operate from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., originating from the Williamsburg Crossing Shopping Center. From there, it will go down Route 199 to Jamestown Road, which it will follow until Greensprings Road. The bus will go up that road, turn onto John Tyler Highway (Route 5) and take that back to the shopping center.
A map of the new route is available here.
“We are in the business of connecting people and being able to reach this part of the County now is very exciting for us,” Kevan Danker, executive director of WATA, said in a news release announcing the start of the new route. “This new route allows us to serve a wider range of customers and once they board a WATA bus they have access to our entire system of routes throughout the Greater Williamsburg area.”
From the shopping center, riders can transfer to the red line, which runs to the Williamsburg Transportation Center. From there, all other WATA routes are accessible.
The new route is made possible by state and federal grants. Money is in place to fund the route for three years, during which time WATA personnel will evaluate its effectiveness to determine if enough people use it to warrant continuing it.
For the rest of January and all of February, the route will be offered for free. Beginning March 1, a fare of $1.25 per trip or $2 for all-day access will be instituted. WATA also sells a variety of other passes. Anyone who transfers onto the Jamestown route from another WATA route between Jan. 22 and Feb. 6 will receive a voucher for an all-day pass that can be used during that period.
WATA operates a network of buses in the Historic Triangle, which serve routes in Williamsburg, parts of James City County and Upper York County. It also provides service to Surry County via the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry and to Hampton Roads Transit’s network in Newport News.