Click to enlarge MARY JANE FARMER / HERALD DEMOCRAT A Blake Utter Ford employee gets into one of nine vehicles given Thursday to TAPS Public Transportation. All nine came from Collin County Area Rapid Transportation.

BY MARY JANE FARMER

HERALD DEMOCRAT

One TAPS bus drove to Collin County, nine of the system's drivers as passengers, and those drivers collected nine donated vehicles to add to their fleet.

TAPS Public Transportation, which serves Fannin, Grayson, Cooke, Montague, Wise, and Clay counties, began with a station wagon and a van and has since expanded to include more than 60 buses and vans, and provides more than 360,000 trips each year across these counties. There are also two trips daily into Collin County, explained TAPS Executive Director Brad Underwood, who transport people to and from the DART rail station. About 75 people utilize that service on a daily basis.

Texas Department of Transportation is the funding agency for much of the TAPS system, as it is for the Collin County Area Rapid Transportation system, or CCART. It was TxDOT's decision to transfer the vehicles to TAPS.

Underwood said that TxDOT used the information about TAPS' rise in customer service to make the decision about the transfer of vehicles. The buses, if purchased new, run about $80,000 each and vans equipped for TAPS service can cost up to $40,000 apiece. In all, Underwood said, TAPS received more than $1 million in vehicles. Some will be put into service as Friday and all of them will be on the roads by Monday, he added.

TAPS has hired 30 new drivers during the past month, and are still hiring. The TAPS fleet will now have about 85 vehicles in service.

The TAPS office is open from 8 a.m. -5 p.m. weekdays at 6104 Texoma Parkway in Sherman. Anyone seeking a driving job can pick up an application.