Shawnee Mass Transit District (often shortened to Shawnee MTD) is a provider of mass transportation in Southern Illinois, primarily serving Anna, Cario, and Metropolis. Fixed-route and inter-city transit services are provided in these communities, while additional demand-response service is available through their 5 county service area which include Alexander County, Johnson County, Massac County, Pulaski County, and Union County.[1] As of 2023, the system provided 113,788 rides with around 33,029 revenue hours and a fleet of 78 vehicles.[2]
Shawnee MTD was originally created on January 30, 2001 after a five-county resolution passed which saw the creation of a new public transportation service for Alexander, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski, and Union Counties. The agency officially began operation in 2003 under the name Southern Most Area Rural Transit (SMART) with depots in Anna and Metropolis as well as administrative offices being housed at the Ullin Fire Department. The agency would eventually move their offices to Shawnee Community College as well as their Karnak maintenance facility and operate there from 2005 to 2009. Eventually, they moved all their administrative to Vienna in 2009. in 2013, the agency would drop the Southern Most Area Rural Transit name and rebrand to Shawnee Mass Transit District. In 2014, Shawnee MTD began construction on new administrative offices that would be completed by July 2015. In March of 2020, ground was broken for two new depots in Metropolis (completed in April of 2021) and Mounds (completed in June 2021). In 2022, Shawnee MTD would break ground for a new depot in Anna (completed in January of 2024) and demolish the Karnak depot for replacement(completed in February of 2024).[3][4]
Service
Shawnee MTD offers five different service routes. These include three fixed routes. These include the Anna-Jonesboro Fixed Route, the Metropolis Fixed Route, and the Mounds-Cairo-Mound City(Tri-Town Service) Fixed Route. Shawnee MTD also provides two inter-city routes from Cairo that will either take riders to Cape Girardeau or Carbondale. Local and inter-city request services operate throughout the five-county region. Regular fares for fixed-route services start at $1.00.[1]
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