County residents being polled on mass transit service

DESOTO COUNTY — DeSoto County residents are being asked to participate in a survey to determine the support for a mass transit service.

The Memphis Area Transit Authority and regional planners are promoting the survey.

The Commercial Appeal reports the scope of the DeSoto survey doesn’t include service to Memphis.

Results of the survey are expected sometime in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Ted Garrod, DeSoto’s planning director, says the survey is aimed “at intra-city needs, such as service within Hernando or Olive Branch, or maybe connections to Horn Lake or Southaven.”

John Lancaster, manager of planning for MATA, says the three-month survey will launch this summer.

MATA already provides bus service into West Memphis in Arkansas under a contract arrangement.