Des Moines Area Regional Transit history

December 19, 1888 – The first electric streetcar (a converted horse car) made its first trip.

1889 – Jefferson Polk consolidated the Des Moines Street Railway, the Broad Gauge Street Railway, the Rapid Transit Company, and the Sevastopol Street Railway into a new company, the Des Moines City Railway.

1911 – After several years of operation, the Des Moines City Railway declared bankruptcy.

1929 – The Des Moines system was acquired by a syndicate headed by Walter J. Cummings and it became the Des Moines Railway Company.

October 8, 1938 – The first “curbliners” (trolley buses) made their appearance in Des Moines.

Transit systems in Iowa's ten largest cities carried 105 million riders in 1946.

By 1954 ridership for Iowa's top 10 cities was down to 42 million and still falling.

In 1966, the federal UMTA was moved to the newly formed United States Department of Transportation.

The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1973 increased the federal share for transit capital grants for urbanized areas and for the first time allowed highway funds to be used for transit capital purchases.

In 1974, the National Mass Transportation Assistance Act created a program of formula grants to urbanized areas (more than 50,000 population) that could be used for purchase of transit equipment or facilities or to assist in financing the operation of transit services.

In 1975, the newly formed Iowa DOT processed applications granting federal capital funding to 17 private, non-profit corporations to assist in the provision of specialized transportation for elderly or handicapped clients.

Also in 1976, the Iowa General Assembly added to Chapter 601J of the Iowa Code, provisions requiring all public funds spent on transit to be expended in conformance with the state transit plan.

In 1981, the Iowa DOT established a performance-based formula for the distribution of the federal rural transit assistance funds among Iowa's rural transit systems for use as operating assistance.

In 1984, the General Assembly also amended Chapter 601J of the Iowa Code to require that any entity spending public funds to provide passenger transportation within the state must consolidate or coordinate such services with the designated urban or regional transit system in the area.

In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring all fixed-route transit systems to offer complimentary paratransit services and all transit systems to purchase wheelchair-accessible vehicles and provide equal services to persons with disabilities.

In 1992, Iowa was among the first states to receive an earmark of federal transit discretionary funding to be used to address statewide capital needs.

Also in 1993, the Iowa DOT converted from an organizational structure based on modal units to a structure based on functional units.

In 1998, Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which for the first time guaranteed multiyear funding levels for public transit.

1999 - Ottumwa/Region 15 installs one of the first automatic vehicle locating systems for rural transit.

In 2001, the Iowa General Assembly diverted approximately $660,000 of use tax funds from public transit to other program needs within the state's General Fund.