You see Streamline’s iconic yellow buses all around town, and now, the service has gained national recognition.
Streamline was recently one of six transit agencies across the country to be awarded the Connecting Communities Award by the Federal Transit Administration for its work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our ability to continue service throughout the pandemic and connect essential workers and people accessing essential care,” said Streamline Director Sunshine Ross.
During the height of the pandemic between April and May 2020, Streamline and Galavan provided more than 10,000 rides to people in the valley during those two months. It’s that work that earned them national recognition.
“We still provided rides, quite a few rides,” said Ross.
Overall, in 2020 with the pandemic in full force Streamline provided more than 150,000 rides. Benny Batchelder is one of the drivers who helped get people where they needed to go.
“It was real scary. I just wore a mask every day—it was pretty interesting,” Batchelder said.
Scary, but Batchelder has the passion and will to serve his community.
“I actually love my job. I Help out the community with people who need to ride the bus and I really enjoy it,” he said.
The pandemic put most things on hold across the world, but Streamline says they consider themselves lucky to be able to continue and even grow in recent years.
“Agencies across the country were forced to reduce its services and we really were fortunate to not face that,” said Ross.
