SporTran: New buses, bus stop shelters and advancements

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – According to SporTran, 2025 is going to be a big year with many projects coming to fruition. From bus shelters to SporTran City to new buses, many things are on the way.

SporTran City located at 1253 Texas Avenue will serve as SporTran’s safety and operations control center in a few weeks.

“It will be our home base. We’ll have driver simulator in there, we have, first of its kind in the area which is really cool, that will help a lot with training people that have never driven a bus before that want to come work with us,” said Leslie Peck, director of communications and marketing for SporTran.

It will provide simulated Shreveport routes so that first-time drivers are not on the roads. SporTran says this has been in the works for years and is finally complete. The simulator also showcases the bus line’s commitment to safety.

SporTran has received two FDA grants for new buses and bus stop shelters. According to SporTran, the approximate amount for the grants are $25 million.

The first nine of the brand new Gillig buses were stationed outside. They will hit the streets in a matter of weeks after fine tuning aftermarket things that must be done on property.

Peck says these newer 800-model buses will replace some of the older models. She spoke of the new buses’ advancements.

“These buses are state of the art. They just came off the line a few weeks ago. Dinero’s Washington, our CEO, personally went to California with his leadership team to design them. The interiors are unlike any of our other buses; they are absolutely beautiful, with wood floors, much more of an open feeling,” says Peck.

The new buses will be released with SporTran’s technology platform, Avail.

“That will be our new live feed, passenger notifications, there will be automatic passenger counters, so that we can keep better records for our FDA funding, so these buses really, really will make a difference as far as communication with our riders,” said Peck.

The buses will also speak to the bus line’s mission of prioritizing safety.

“New safety measures have been put in place where the vehicles will self-diagnose and report back what’s going on. The announcement systems are better, the outside lighting is better; those are things we always factor in with whatever projects we’re working on. Because it’s a zero-fare program, we want everybody to hop on and hop off as they need,” said Peck.

The FDA grant for bus stops and bus stop accessibility was given to SporTran in 2021. With approximately $2 million, they purchased 400 new bus stop shelters. This will be more shelters than SporTran has ever had, with the old ones replaced and new ones added.

“Many of them solar paneled, we’re going to be bringing in digital signage at a later point, but those are all have finally arrived,” said Peck.

She says the shelters will be released in the next few months. SporTran must look at the location they will be, making sure paths are laid and they are ADA accessible.

As SporTran unveils projects to support Bossier and Shreveport riders, it is launching an initiative to ask for support from the public.

The initiative is for mobility drivers, drivers for the SporTran OnDemand service, and paratransit van drivers. You are welcome to apply if you have a standard driver’s license. If hired, SporTran will give you a chauffeur’s license at no cost.