Press Release – March 12, 2021

Subject: Suspension of Sunshine Express and Downtown Dolphin Bus Services

 

CTA’s Sunshine Express and Downtown Dolphin bus services began operating as a six-month demonstration project on August 29, 2020. The Sunshine Express is an express bus service operating between the CTA transit centers in Biloxi and Gulfport. The Downtown Dolphin is a trolley bus service connecting the MS Aquarium with downtown Gulfport and the Island View Casino. We are at the end of the demonstration period and in consultation with our stakeholders, we have assessed the viability of continuing these two routes.

Like most transit systems in the United States, COVID-19 has had an adverse impact on CTA ridership. When planning the operations of these two routes, we did not anticipate that
COVID-19 would linger into 2021 and in fact intensify. Statistics have proven that our CTA system and public transit in general is COVID-19 safe. These two routes have not achieved the levels of ridership at this point in time to support sustainability. The decision has been made to suspend operations of these two routes until such time that the local transit market will support reestablishing service.

The last day of service for the Sunshine Express and the Downtown Dolphin routes will be Saturday, March 20, 2021.

For additional information visit us at www.coasttransit.com or call 228-896-8080.

 

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