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PVTA, MGM Set To Roll Out A Free Bus Service

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WAMC
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A new public transit vehicle will make its debut in western Massachusetts Monday. 

An electric-powered bus that will be used exclusively for a new free service called “The Loop” is scheduled to take a test spin in downtown Springfield for representatives of the city’s hospitality industry.

Regular service for the public will begin on August 24th with the opening of the MGM casino.

PVTA Administrator Sandra Sheehan said the new bus will make stops at the city’s hotels and major attractions at roughly one-hour intervals.

"It is going to operate Wednesday-Sunday from 10 a.m.- 10 p.m and will be fare-free," said Sheehan.

MGM is paying $200,000 for cost of the service under a one year contract.

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.