WRTA celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday. Director Dean Harris reflected on the company's history and discussed future plans.

Around 33 WRTA buses are on the road at one time during the day with 7,000 riding each day. The majority of users use it to get to work and 40% of the riders are senior citizens who are disabled.

According to Davis, since most of Youngstown is a food desert, people use the buses to get groceries, and according to the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, without WRTA, local businesses wouldn't be able to expand and new businesses would be less likely to locate in the area.

"Without the transportation services offered by WRTA, we may not have succeeded in those projects over the years in securing that economic development investment. If people cannot get to work, businesses cannot grow and cannot keep their doors open," said Sarah Boyarko, Chief Operating Officer of Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber.

In the future, there are plans to continue the free fares permanently since they only account for 6% of WRTA's revenue, which, according to Harris, is closer to three.

"When you factor in the cost to collect that money, counting that money by the staff, depositing that money, repairing the fare boxes, it took away about 50% of the revenue just to collect that money," Harris said.

Additionally, WRTA plans to introduce autonomous vehicles around Youngstown State University and St. Elizabeth's Hospital in 2022.