I think you will all agree that this is an exciting moment for our entire community. The City of Wichita is pleased to launch a new era in public transportation for our City - an era that continues to focus on our citizens but will also concentrate on comfort and convenience.

As you know, Wichita has been named an All-American City three times because of our quality of life - and Wichita's public transportation system is woven into the tapestry of that quality of life. It has always been a key component of our City's infrastructure. I share our City Council's dedication to public transportation to make our City more accessible for its citizens. To make this a reality, we have taken steps to make our transit system stronger. We have built two facilities – one for our citizens for ease of travel at a great location in downtown at the Transit Center. Then we opened a facility for our buses at Transit Operations. This provided a better place to store and maintain our buses to assure long life.

Today we take an even bigger step in improving our public transportation system for Wichita. Soon we will unveil our new City buses, complete with their "new look" that the entire fleet will soon possess. This marks the second phase of our replacement program, one that will replace 75 percent of our bus fleet over the next few months. Today we add not only the 5 Chance buses to our fleet but also 5 new Gillig buses that have just arrived from California. In total, we will receive 34 new buses by the end of this summer. These additions will update our City's bus fleet, making them all better looking, easier to operate and maintain, and most importantly, more comfortable and safe for our passengers.

I am especially proud to say today that this new fleet will make our City buses 100% ADA accessible. Not only that, but with the new design of the buses, there is more room for wheelchair bound citizens. Now all citizens of Wichita will be able to ride a City bus. These new buses have a modern design, are more comfortable and offer lower fuel and maintenance costs that will lower overall operating expenses. Plus, they use cleaner burning fuel that will help our air quality. We know that with these amenities, more people will be willing, and able, to ride a City bus.

To remind our citizens of these new amenities, we will soon be launching an awareness campaign on our City's public transportation system. Currently, over 2 million passengers and 210,000 disabled passengers ride on our City's buses. We know that with this new fleet those numbers will grow. We are using a new slogan remind our citizens that now, and for the future...YOUR RIDE IS HERE! Using public transportation not only saves money, especially in this time when gas prices are continually soaring, but it is also kinder to our environment. In the hot months of summer when our air quality is threatened, take a City bus. It would make one less car on the road burning less fuel.

Lastly, I would like to thank our State & Federal governments. The City of Wichita worked with the Federal Transit Administration to receive federal funds to provide 80 percent of the funding for the buses. The remaining 20 percent was paid for by the Kansas Department of Transportation. The total dollars that we received was 10 million dollars to purchase these buses. Most of that money could have gone to any other city...Oklahoma City, Des Moines, or even Chicago or Dallas. Instead, it comes to Wichita to help us improve our quality of life.

With our new bus replacement program well under way, the future for transit in Wichita has taken an extremely positive turn. Future plans continue to add services and development that will add up to improved mass transit for the citizens of Wichita. These new buses today lead that charge. I would like to invite the Citizens of Wichita to try out their new buses. Enjoy the new design, bright colors, comfort and safety that it brings. We want you to know that now and for the future...YOUR RIDE IS HERE!