You may notice some newly painted, green buses driving around town. They’re the Regional Transportation Commission’s fastest, latest service for those who use public transportation.

Felicia Archer, RTC Public Information Officer, says “What you see is ‘RTC Rapid’ and ‘RTC Rapid Connect’ and it's a new light rail type service without the rail. Bus rapid transit is what it's called. And it's a quick easy way to get downtown or Meadowood Mall and anywhere along Virginia Street corridor.”

“RTC Rapid” serves seven stations and takes about 20 minutes to go from Meadowood Mall to RTC Citicenter. Sunday, there was a soft launch of the service and passengers say it's making public transportation a lot more enticing.

The new service is federally funded for the next three years and is meant to reduce congestion and pollution. And it’s attracting new riders, who say that before “RTC Rapid,” they didn't like the idea of a painfully long bus ride.

“Today we got on and it was really easy coming from the downtown station and it didn't take long at all we got there in 20 minutes and it was a nice ride,” says Sara Sharpless, a UNR student who didn’t want to take the bus before this new service because she said prior to “RTC Rapid,” it took her an hour.

RTC is working on other ways to make the bus system more efficient—like setting up prepay kiosks at all the bus stops, which the RTC is now calling “stations.” Those kiosks will save time at every “station” because the bus driver won’t have to collect fare from riders coming on board.

Another change—riders won’t have to worry about the bus schedule. There still is one, but buses will come every 10-12 minutes, so there will never be a long wait if a rider misses a bus.

And for riders like Walter Hall who take the bus everyday to work, they will save 10 minutes each way. That adds up to hours every week, valuable time that Walter says he could really use. “Allows me extra time in the morning to get ready for work and grab a cup of coffee once I get to Citicenter.”

“RTC Rapid” stops at only seven stops so the RTC has also created a new service called “RTC Rapid Connect.” The Rapid Connect will make all* the usual stops along Virginia Street. And to continue the effort of being faster and more efficient while lessening their carbon footprint, the RTC expects diesel-electric hybrid vehicles in 2010.

For information on schedules, stations, and even planning your route, visit www.rtcwashoe.com