Bus Service Between Belvidere and Rockford May End Next Summer

Blame it on federal funding!

If you are one of the thousands of people who utilize RMTD bus service between Belvidere and Rockford may have to find another mode of transportation as of Summer 2015

You will recall that the Belvidere-Rockford service was established in 2011 and according to RMTD a portion of the funding for the service comes from approximately a $175,000 federal Job Access Reverse Commute grant. This grant is scheduled to expire next summer. The rest of the funding with local and local funds.

The Rockford Register Star reports that according to RMTD rep Lisa Brown the Belvidere route costs approximately $372,000 a year to operate.

Once the grant money is depleted in 2015, Brown said that 65 percent of the route’s operation costs will be covered with state funds. The remaining 45 percent, roughly $170,000, would need to be picked up by Belvidere or other local funding sources.