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GENERAL INFORMATION

 

Hill Country Transit District (HCTD) operates the HOP, a regional public transit system that has grown from the transit service provided by HCTD in a nine-county area in Central Texas since the 1960s.  In the last decade, that service has seen significant change and growth.  The transit service still serves a large rural area, and the service has further evolved to include two Urban Divisions.  One Urban Division serves the Temple urbanized area, including Belton.  The other Urban Division serves the Killeen urbanized area, including Copperas Cove and Harker Heights.

 

The transit system, known as the HOP, regularly coordinates trips, often carrying passengers with disabilities via its Special Transit Service (STS) to Fixed Route Service (FRS) routes, thereby providing service to persons in rural areas and urban clients in the Killeen and Temple urbanized areas.  HCTD includes among its passengers clients of several social service agencies.

 

HCTD is governed by a Board of Directors that includes representation of each County served, and of each major city served.  Planning and support also comes from the following:

 

  • HCTD is a member of the Technical Committee of the Killeen-Temple Urban Transportation Study (KTUTS), which serves as the area’s MPO;
  • HCTD works closely with the Temple Transit Advisory Committee, which is appointed by the Temple City Council, and which includes representatives of the disabled community, as well as social service agencies;
  • HCTD meets with the Transportation Committee of the Killeen City Council to provide transit service and user information to the City of Killeen and its representatives.

 

HCTD encourages social service agencies and the general public to use the public transit system.  To the maximum extent possible, HCTD, serving as the region’s existing transportation provider, works to meet transportation requirements through use of the public transit system in several ways.

 

  1. The HOP encourages users and agencies to use fixed route service whenever possible;
  2. The HOP provides an easy means for agencies to purchase tokens, multi-ride tickets, and monthly passes for their clients for use on fixed route service;
  3. The HOP provides travel training for agencies and groups;
  4. Agencies and members of the general public can rely on the HOP as the existing transportation provider to continue to serve the area, merging rural and urban service.

 

This type of information is shared locally.  Route and service plans are reviewed with several local area committees and network groups, with input used to maximize the efficiency of transit service. 

Through the cooperation and financial support of cities, businesses, and other institutions, HCTD has more than 15 shelters in the Killeen Urban Division, with an additional 10 installed in 2004, and with 7 shelters installed in 2004 in the Temple Urban Division.  Temple has benches at about 5% of the fixed route bus stops. 

 

The service the HOP provides has several aspects, such as:

 

  • Rural transit service is provided throughout the 9 county transit district;
  • Urban service is provided in the two urban centers of the district, with an emphasis on use of fixed route service;
  • Multiple program funds and revenue from service contracts are blended into one stream to serve both as direct funds and as matching funds for federal transit dollars;
  • HCTD has served for several years as the Medicaid service provider;
  • Several social service agencies purchase tickets, tokens, and passes from HCTD for their clients to use for boarding fixed route and special transit service vehicles to meet the transit needs of those agency clients;
  • HCTD serves as both the rural provider and the urban provider, operating services for rural trips, ADA complementary paratransit trips, and fixed route trips, thereby transcending service boundaries.

 

The HOP relies each operating year on funds that come from several sources, including:

 

  • Passenger fares paid directly into the fare box as passengers board the bus;
  • Federal tax dollars that are made available provided local matching cash is identified;
  • State funds for transit use;
  • In Killeen, Community Development Block Grant funds have been used for providing transit shelters, and for paying fares for senior citizens;
  • The sale of passes and tokens;
  • HCTD contract revenue from agencies such as the Central Texas Area Agency on Aging, and from the contract revenue from transporting trips paid for by Medicaid.