Commuters in Iredell County will be able to take public transit all the way to uptown Charlotte, starting Wednesday.
It’s called the ICATS Express route. It won’t take you all the way to Charlotte like the 83 express bus did. It connects Statesville, Troutman, and Mooresville to the 77 express bus in Huntersville.
Jeff Crouchley, ICATS operations manager, says this new route will fill the need the 83 express route left behind. That route lost funding in 2010 when Mooresville commissioners declined to renew a $25,000 six-month contract with the Charlotte Area Transit System.
“We sort of picked up the slack. We found the funding and so we’ll be running our bus down to exit 25," says Crouchley.
There, commuters can connect to uptown Charlotte, the airport, or Concord. The bus will make six round trips a day during the week and hold around 25 passengers. It will eventually use the I-77 toll lanes.
The bus route costs about $158,000. ICATS along with Iredell County towns are paying half of the bill with federal and state grants matching the rest. The cost for a passenger will likely be $3 one-way or $121 a month. But for July, it’s free.