LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — It’s a new era in Lake County. For the first time in 20 years, Laketran is adding service.
Route 8 will connect Tyler Boulevard to Lakeland Community College, the Great Lakes Mall, Mentor Park-n-Ride, Mentor High School, Mentor Civic Center, Mentor-on-the-Lake and Mentor Headlands.
Route 9 will provide service from downtown Painesville to Tyler Boulevard. It will also service Diamond Centre in Mentor.
The two new lines will directly link residents with jobs. Tyler Boulevard is one of the largest manufacturing hubs in the state.
For people like Megan Gambill and her son Reese, it opens new opportunities that were otherwise not available.
Reese suffers from severe anxiety and does not drive, so his mother provides his transportation to his job on Tyler Blvd.
“This will allow him to be even a bit more independent,” Gambill said. “He can walk up to the end of our street and just down the road to catch a bus that will take him to his place of employment.”
The expanded services are possible because of a new levy that was passed last November. With transportation barriers removed, it will also provide opportunities for Gambill’s entire family.
“I also have a 15-year-old who I would like to see get a job and this will open up opportunities for her as well because if I’m working and she’s out of school,” Gambill said. “Now it doesn’t have to be that she doesn’t have to wait for me to get to a job.”
Route 8 will operate hourly from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and every two hours on Saturdays.
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