The Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority has discontinued its Kent-Streetsboro, Rootstown-Ravenna Circulator and Ravenna to Hiram routes due to low ridership, said Bryan Smith, PARTA operations manager.

The Kent-Streetsboro route has been replaced by a new route called the 40. The 40 runs five days a week between Theodore Roosevelt High School and Kent State, where the bus follows the campus Loop route. The bus continues along PARTA’s South Water route to the Indian Valley Apartments. The route runs between the Music and Speech Building and the Indian Valley Apartments on Saturdays.

Dial-a-Ride services are being provided to riders whose current employment is affected by the changes.

Dial-a-Ride services also have replaced the Rootstown-Ravenna Circulator and the Ravenna to Hiram routes. For the Rootstown-Ravenna route, services are available five days a week to Rootstown, Randolph and Suffield. For the Ravenna to Hiram Dial-a-Ride services, buses will run once in the morning and once in the evening between Hiram and Ravenna on Saturdays.

To use PARTA’s Dial-a-Ride services, call (330) 678-1287 or (800) RIDE-RTA at least 24 hours in advance.

There were no changes to on-campus routes, Smith said. PARTA is still hiring student drivers for its campus routes.

“That is our life blood — student drivers,” Smith said.

—Lindsay Wargo