To compete with Uber and Lyft, WRTA is giving Boardman customers a chance to order a ride later in the day

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – To keep up with Uber and Lyft, the WRTA has started its own form of on-demand transportation service. It’ll be available after-hours in Boardman.

If you live in Boardman and travel on the WRTA bus, you may notice some bus lines don’t run after 7 p.m.

“A regular service, we have a bunch of routes and they run hourly,” said Executive Director Dean Harris. “Our nightly service is only selected routes and it only runs in certain areas, so it only covers a small portion of our service area.”

To combat this, WRTA will be offering an on-demand transportation service to help the people who might not get out of work until later.

“Not being able to get home at night, not being able to get to a bus stop at night because of it being dark and no sidewalks,” Harris said. “So we’re trying to address a couple of issues with this service.”

For the next six months, WRTA YOUride will only be running in Boardman to test how the new service works out.

“It just makes sense to provide a little more service and plus, it’s a good place to demo it,” Harris said. “A good opportunity for passengers because a little more activity going on down there.”

To take advantage of this, download WRTA’s TransLoc mobile app from Google Play (Android) or the App Store (iPhone). You can use it to order your ride, and say where you want to be picked up and dropped off.

For now, you can only book from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. and you can only be picked up or dropped off in the Boardman area.

The service will only cost a dollar.

Harris said they have an idea of where they might try YOUride next.

“This is more trying to fill the void within our fixed route service. An idea is to maybe move up to Austintown as a next demo area.”

Harris said he just got started with the service and knows it’s not going to be a fast start, but word of mouth can help it catch on.

“It will probably be slow at first but I think, because of the area, it will catch on. We’re hoping the hotels will start telling their customers that you can ride from the hotel to a restaurant.”