SCT shuttle route to take employees to Pinckneyville prison
Centralia-based South Central Transit will celebrate its silver anniversary of service by creating a Williamson, Franklin & Perry County shuttle route for employees of the Pinckneyville Correctional Center.
SCT director Sheila Niederhofer said the new route will begin on Monday, July 14 and will provide service to and from the prison for all three shifts.
Du Quoin has a new covered downtown shuttle stop, but other pickup locations have not been announced. For pick-up and drop-off locations, you can check their Web site at www.southcentraltransit.org
The route will begin in Marion, head north to West Frankfort and Benton, turn east to Christopher and Du Quoin, then end at the front gate to the correctional center.
The route will be reversed at the end of each shift. The cost has not been announced, but SCT offers fares by the trip, by the day and long term discount fares.
Since its establishment 25 years ago, South Central Transit Service had grown to 154 employees and 145 vehicles servicing over 47,000 routes each month. SCT is on solid financial footing with cash reserves in the bank.
Recent additions to the offerings include routes from Du Quoin to Carbondale, Du Quoin to Gilster Mary Lee food services manufacturing plant and Du Quoin to Continental Tire Co. in Mount Vernon.
Niederhofer said, "The mission of South Central Transit (SCT) is to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective public transportation to the citizens of the communities we serve. We are committed to enhancing economic development and quality of life through affordable, accessible transportation services. Our SCT team pledges to provide courteous service to our customers and aggressively meet the changing needs of our region."
She credits her board's financial officer Jeff Ashauer, also Du Quoin and Perry County Development director, with bringing these important routes to Southern Illinois.
Ashauer is responsible for landing the $25,000 funding for the new covered shuttle stop in Du Quoin and helped author a plan to build a new office and equipment building in Du Quoin's Industrial Park.
SCT let bids for the project earlier this year and received only one bid. That requires SCT to re-bid the project either for construction of a new facility or to be housed in an existing facility.
SCT is located at 1616 East McCord in Centralia
There are four outlying offices.
The Mt. Vernon office is located at 15178 North Illinois Hwy 37.
The West Frankfort office is located at 709 North Bryan St.
The Breese office is located at 12778 Drive-in Road.
The Du Quoin office is located at 854 E. Olive Street.