The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (officially the GCRTA, but usually referred to as the RTA) is the metropolitan transportation agency in Cleveland, Ohio and its surrounding suburbs. It owns and operates the Cleveland Rapid Transit rail system (better known as The Rapid) and bus services. It is also currently in the process of building a bus rapid transit line along Euclid Avenue from Public Square to University Circle and then to East Cleveland.
The GCRTA was formed on September 5, 1975 with the merger of Cleveland Transit Systems, which operated the heavy rail line from Windermere to Cleveland Hopkins Airport and the local bus systems - having been formed out of the old Cleveland Railway Co., which operated the local streetcar system until 1942 - with the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, which controlled the two light rail lines from downtown to Shaker Heights, and was the descendant of a separate streetcar system formed by the Van Sweringen brothers to serve their Shaker Heights development. A month later, the GCRTA assumed control over the suburban bus systems operated by Maple Heights, North Olmsted, Brecksville, Garfield Heights and Euclid.
The RTA had to undertake a number of renovations to the rail system in particular after its creation, as the Shaker Heights lines (renamed the Blue and Green lines) had not been significantly renovated since their creation in 1920. The lines were largely rebuilt by 1981, and the downtown station at Terminal Tower was heavily rebuilt by 1987. In 1994, a walkway was added from the Terminal Tower station, and the Blue and Green lines were extended to the waterfront area by 1996.
GreaterCleveland, however, including the entire metropolitan area and suburbs, has as many as 2,900,000 people - if the Akron and Lorain areas are included - by far the largest urban area in the state.
Cleveland's eastern half (the "East Side") is more ethnically diverse than its western half (the "West Side", the sides divided by the Cuyahoga River), while the West Side is considered safer and wealthier.
Cleveland was hit hard by white flight and suburbanization, further exacerbated by the busing-based desegregation of Cleveland schools required by the United States Supreme Court.
The GreaterClevelandRegionalTransitAuthority (officially the GCRTA, but usually referred to as the RTA) is the metropolitan transportation agency in Cleveland, Ohio and its surrounding suburbs.
It is also currently in the process of building a bus rapid transit line along Euclid Avenue from Public Square to University Circle and then to East Cleveland.
The RTA had to undertake a number of renovations to the rail system in particular after its creation, as the Shaker Heights lines (renamed the Blue and Green lines) had not been significantly renovated since their creation in 1920.
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