History

In the early 1990’s, the Capital Area Transit Board of Directors identified the need for transportation planning in our region, based on trends that showed increasing highway congestion, increasing population, expanding land development patterns, and increasing regional commuting patterns. It was evident that without a regional plan, southcentral PA would ultimately experience the same type of traffic congestion other major cities experience.

CAT embarked upon a series of transportation studies to identify a feasible transportation plan for our region. Those studies identified expanded bus service and regional rail as potential transit alternatives to address our future mobility.  Studies defined a regional mass transit system that would ultimately connect Adams, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York Counties through a series of corridors. 

In 1997, CAT formed a nonprofit organization called MTP, Modern Transit Partnership, to continue its work. Today the MTP is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors including business, government, nonprofit and individual members from throughout the region.  

In 1996, the Harrisburg-to-Lancaster corridor emerged with rail as the locally-preferred Minimum Operating Segment (MOS) using the Amtrak-owned Keystone Corridor.  And in 2009, planning for the second transit corridor in the system began, which would connect communities from Harrisburg, Hershey, Lebanon and, ultimately, York.

Working together, CAT and the MTP are striving to give southcentral Pennsylvania the quality of life it cherishes by designing a true multi-modal transportation system - allowing passengers to make connections via several modes of mass transit.