Reliable, affordable transportation will soon be available for residents of the Central Kenai Peninsula. The Kenaitze Indian Tribe is launching Kahtnu Area Transit, a fixed-route bus service between Nikiski and Sterling.
Brandi Bell, Elders and Transportation Manager for the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, tells KSRM:
“We had applied for a grant with the FTA for a fixed route spanning from Nikiski to Sterling and we were awarded that grant this spring. We are moving forward with our plans to start that fixed route going fully live in 2023.”
Bell elaborates on the need for public transportation in the community:
“One of the things that we see within the tribe and all of our services is lack of transportation for our unina, those are the people who come to us and those that we serve. Our transportation program, which started up again in 2017, has been providing door-to-door, on-demand service for all of those individuals who seek Kenaitze’s services, but what we haven’t been able to do is assist with education and employment transportation. We saw this as a huge gap, not only with the Alaska Native and American Indian community, but with the general public as a whole. This has been a passion project for me for the last five years to finally get to this point and make it come to fruition.”
The Kenaitze Indian Tribe was awarded a $1.1 million Federal Transit Administration Tribal Transit Program grant to pilot the project. As previously reported, the Kenai Peninsula Borough, City of Kenai, and City of Soldotna all have expressed support for the project. Kahtnu Area Transit service will start with one bus traveling between Nikiski and Sterling. They are working with other local governments to identify safe locations for bus stops.
They hope to fill in gaps in the area’s transportation network and compliment existing transportation services, including CARTS and Alaska Cab. The bus service will be open to the general public when Kahtnu Area Transit’s expected launch happens in 2023.
Kahtnu is the Dena’ina word for the Kenai River.