The new year will formally bring together the mass transit agencies that serve Berks and Lancaster counties.
The Berks County commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved a merger of the Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority and Lancaster's Red Rose Transit Authority into the South Central Transit Authority (SCTA).
The vote came a day after unanimous approval of the merger by the Lancaster County commissioners.
The merger, effective Jan. 1, 2015, allows for BARTA and the RRTA to remain in existence as operating agencies, employing their own drivers and mechanics.
The agencies will contract with the SCTA for management, administrative and purchasing functions, providing each county a savings in the money it provides to its respective agency, officials said.
The merger creates Pennsylvania's third largest transit authority by budget (behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) and the fourth in size by passengers and miles covered (behind Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and State College).
The new authority's name allows for it to grow, opening the door, officials said, to the potential for future mergers with other transit agencies in south central Pennsylvania.
The SCTA will be headquartered in Lancaster because of a health care consortium the RRTA already belongs to, according to David Kilmer, the RRTA's executive director who has also been overseeing BARTA since the 2013 death of BARTA's longtime director, Dennis Louwerse.
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