Plans and Studies
How We Shape the Future
Every Metro project starts with listening, learning, and planning. From long-range visions to service plans, these documents guide how we invest public dollars, improve service, and connect our region to opportunity.
Short Range Transit Plan | 2025-2030
Published: December 2025
The Short Range Transit Plan analyzes Metro’s existing services as well as the existing travel market and establishes Metro’s strategy to most efficiently serve that market in the short term. The SRTP serves as a framework for annual service changes to the fixed-route network, Access, and MetroNOW! service, and identifies capital investments and system infrastructure needed to implement the plan. The plan serves as the foundation for further analysis and refinements necessary to implement new service and service changes over the next five years. The SRTP will be updated every 2-3 years via on-going monitoring and analysis.
Title VI Program Update | 2025-2028
Published: May 2025
This document serves as SORTA’s Title VI Program update from the previous document submitted in April of 2022. Every three years transit agencies receiving funds through the U.S. Department of Transportation must update their program to avoid, minimize or mitigate disparate impacts on minority populations and disproportionate burdens on low-income populations. SORTA’s service has had minor changes since the last Title VI Program update. SORTA’s service area and demographic makeup have remained relatively constant when comparing American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates from the last update.
Fare Equity Analysis
Published: May 2025
In preparation for fare adjustments scheduled for July 16, 2025, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) conducted a comprehensive Fare Equity Analysis to assess potential impacts on minority and low-income populations in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and FTA Circular 4702.1B. The proposed changes include a systemwide 10% fare increase, fare conversion for select suburban express routes, and the introduction of a fare capping program for mobile fare purchases.
Government Square Transit Center Relocation Study
Published: January 2025
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), doing business as Metro, is evaluating proposals to relocate the primary downtown transit center currently located at Government Square. Unlike typical transfer facilities, the Government Square Transit Center is integrated into Downtown Cincinnati’s streetscape, bordered by 5th Street, Walnut Street, and Main Street, and located near Fountain Square, using existing roadway infrastructure along with a dedicated off-street facility on the north side of 5th Street to support boarding, alighting, and transfers. The site serves as the downtown terminus for 37 of Metro’s 49 fixed routes and connects with the adjacent streetcar, providing access within a 15-minute ride to nearly 60,000 jobs and within 30 minutes to over 130,000 jobs. This study examines three alternative relocation scenarios and provides observations and recommendations.
Bus Stop Master Plan
Published: August 2023
SORTA’s system includes more than 3,700 active bus stops, which are often the first impression passengers have of SORTA’s bus services. A bus stop’s safety, accessibility, cleanliness, and comfort play an important role in the overall passenger experience, and SORTA strives to create stops that enhance this experience while positively contributing to neighborhood streetscapes and providing useful information to passengers, operators, and other street users. The purpose of this plan is to provide guidance for locating and designing bus stops to help improve the passenger experience.
Regional Transit Gap Analysis
Published: May 2023
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) recently completed a detailed and comprehensive strategic plan (Reinventing Metro), which guided phasing and recommendations for future transit improvements. In addition, SORTA also recently completed a mobility-on-demand (MOD) Service Development and Recommendations study to identify and recommend areas within Hamilton County for the development and deployment of MOD services to better connect users to and from the fixed-route network. Thus, the purpose of this study is to incorporate those findings and expand the footprint to identify and assess regional transit mobility gaps within the Greater Cincinnati Area (GCA).
Mobility On Demand Service Development and Recommendations
Published: June 2022
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) completed a comprehensive strategic plan, Reinventing Metro, which guides future transit improvements and includes a recommendation to develop mobility-on-demand (MOD) services; accordingly, this study identifies and recommends areas within Hamilton County for the deployment of MOD services, which are customer-responsive, shared-ride, mobility-for-all services available to both the general public and individuals eligible under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), designed to support localized trips such as home-to-grocery and provide connections to the fixed-route network for longer journeys, particularly in areas where traditional fixed-route service is not feasible due to street network constraints, low density, or limited access to bus stops.
Greater Cincinnati Region Paratransit Coordination
Published: Octber 2021
Transportation services for people with physical, economic, or mental challenges in the Greater Cincinnati Region are provided by multiple transit and human service agencies but are often fragmented, limited to specific populations, and constrained by county and state boundaries, making cross-jurisdiction travel difficult. Regional studies and public feedback have highlighted widespread frustration among paratransit users, leading a project team of transit planners, human service agencies, and community members to convene workshops in 2021 to identify barriers and develop strategies to better coordinate paratransit and on-demand services. Through stakeholder engagement, surveys, and prioritization exercises, the team created a set of goals, strategies, and implementation steps, which are summarized in this document along with timelines, cost estimates, and a regional coordination schedule.
Reinventing Metro Service Implementation Study
Published: February 2019
Reinventing Metro is a plan of action to significantly improve transit service within the Cincinnati Metropolitan Region. The plan is based on changing SORTA’s funding source from an earnings tax collected by the City of Cincinnati that is allocated to SORTA to a sales tax throughout Hamilton County that is collected directly by SORTA. The change in funding for SORTA is projected to allow for significant increases in service levels, reversing the recent trend of service decreases due to budget deficits.
Metro Transit Infrastructure Fund
In May 2020, Hamilton County voters approved a new funding model for Cincinnati Metro, replacing the city earnings tax with a 0.8% countywide sales tax effective January 2021 to fund SORTA for 25 years, administered through the Metro Transit Infrastructure Fund; 75% of the levy (0.6%) supports Metro’s bus operations and capital costs, while the remaining 25% (0.2%) funds infrastructure improvements such as roads, bridges, and sidewalks that benefit bus service within Metro’s service area.