On October 1, 1999, two teams – serving different communities and separated by a historic waterway – officially united in the nation’s first voluntary merger of transit agencies.
After years of imagine-if visioning, intense conversations, lengthy negotiations and lots of gumption, Tidewater Regional Transit (TRT) and Peninsula Transit (PENTRAN) merged on that day to create Hampton Roads Transit (HRT).
Before then, TRT provided transit service in the cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. PENTRAN’s buses served Hampton and Newport News.
Together, a merged agency offered more clout, better connectivity, cost savings – and a shining example of regional cooperation that would make possible the advent of light rail and cross-tunnel express bus service.
The many benefits envisioned 25 years ago still live on. And today, more than 50 employees who served at the time of the merger continue to serve HRT customers and communities.
“Most transit agencies of any size have operational facilities that are miles apart,” recalls Michael Townes, PENTRAN’s general manager at the time who became HRT’s first CEO. “Ours just happened to be separated by a body of water and a body of perception.”