CINCINNATI – Subway buses can run for free for four of the next eight weekends. This is part of the region’s larger effort to make coronavirus vaccines more accessible for those who cannot simply drive to an appointment themselves.
In collaboration with the Health Collaborative’s “Get Out the Vax” campaign, all bus routes – including Metro’s Access paratransit service – can be used free of charge on the second and fourth Saturdays in April and May. All routes are free this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 8-10, for the upcoming mass vaccination at the Cintas Center.
Metro will run all routes free of charge on the following dates:
- Thursday April 8th
- Friday April 9th
- Saturday April 10th
- Sunday April 11th
- Saturday April 24th
- Sunday April 25th
- Saturday May 8th
- Sunday May 9th
- Saturday May 22nd
- Sunday 23rd May
Darryl Haley, Metro’s CEO and general manager, said the bus service is playing a vital role in providing people in underserved communities with access to the vaccine.
“Transportation plays a key role in ensuring equal access to COVID-19 vaccinations for all eligible populations,” said Darryl Haley, Metro CEO and general manager, in a press release Tuesday. “We are proud to be able to support the effort by taking this hurdle and offering free rides.”
This weekend is also the second mass vaccination event that Metro has made a free bus fare available across the system. The first event took place in the Cintas Center in mid-March.
The Cincinnati subway lines 4, 31, 51 and MetroPlus serve the Cintas Center directly.
As last month, Metro will also offer a shuttle service from bus stops to the Cintas Center to assist those who might find getting from the bus stop to the site’s entrance a challenge. This shuttle is picked up from the subway bus stops on Montgomery Road and Dana Avenue, Woodburn and Dana Avenues, and Xavier University Parking Lot C-2. These shuttles run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The award-free days are subsidized through the Rides for Community Immunity program, which consists of grants distributed by the Ohio Department of Transportation to facilitate access to vaccination sites across the state.
Comments are closed.