The Tulsa Transit board approved on Tuesday extending temporary bus service in Turley from April until late August.
When Aero took the place of the old Route 105, people past 56th Street North lost their regular service, and Tulsa Transit ended up splitting Route 110 there to continue serving Peoria Avenue.
General Manager Ted Rieck said extending bus rapid transit north is a potential solution, but getting another Aero bus to make it work would take a year.
"If people could live with a similar but not identical bus, then we could probably do it a lot sooner. And really, the people, the stakeholders — mainly the city — will have to be comfortable about whatever look we come up with," Rieck said.
The temporary "split end" route will cost $112,300 to run through March with service every 60 minutes along Peoria Avenue and Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard north of 56th Street North. The cost to extend Aero north on Peoria has not been figured out yet.
"Cost and funding, all those things are to be weighed in that. It would be nice to be able to have a service like that up in Turley. I think they would love it, but there are a lot of factors to consider before making that commitment.
Tulsa County Commissioner Stan Sallee said Aero needs to reach farther north.
"Finances are important, how they’re going to fund it, but this is a part of the community they’ve been servicing, the transit authority, for over 30 years. And now we’ve kind of gone backwards, improved part of Tulsa," Sallee said.
Tulsa Transit will get a report in March to help in choosing a permanent bus service for Turley.
