You can already book a public transit ride from Hillman, Atlanta or Lewiston. The Thunder Bay Transportation Authority lists all of Montmorency County as part of its service area, alongside Alpena and Alcona counties and part of Presque Isle County. What has worked against riders up here is the distance the vehicle has to cover before it reaches the driveway.
The state grant announced on Oct. 13 goes after that distance. WBKB 11 reported that TBTA received $678,366 from Michigan's Infrastructure Projects Authority Fund to start an on-demand service based in Montmorency County. Today TBTA's rides start out from Alpena, and the plan puts vehicles and drivers in the county itself.
The Ride Already Exists. The Wait Is the Problem.
When a van is based in Alpena, every Montmorency County pickup starts with an empty drive west before the rider is even in the seat. Michigan's Department of Transportation describes the project in those terms: placing vehicles and drivers locally in Montmorency County to cut dispatch distance from Alpena, response time and empty miles.
WBKB's coverage makes the same point. Positioning drivers in the county "rather than dispatching from Alpena" lets TBTA "reduce empty miles and get residents to their destinations faster."
This changes how to read the headline. The grant doesn't bring transit to a county that had none. It moves the starting point of existing service much closer to the people using it. A rural transit system can cover a map and still be slow if every trip begins in another county. Moving the base mostly changes how fast a ride shows up, more than whether one is available.
Until recently TBTA saw that change as a long way off. In a July 2024 Alpena News story on Dial-A-Ride's 50th year, TBTA Executive Director Angie Fox said extending service further into Alcona and Montmorency counties had come up in discussions:
"All of that may take time and be years down the road. But, that is something that we have talked about."
Two years and one state grant later, the timeline looks shorter than she expected.
How a Ride Works This Week
The new service doesn't have a start date yet. Until it does, the existing system is what you have, and it runs on advance planning. Here is how TBTA lays it out on its Hours and Fares page. That page hasn't been updated in a while, so confirm any detail when you call.
- Call a day ahead or earlier. TBTA says rides need to be scheduled at least a day in advance and that "the more notice the better." The number for its Transportation Coordinators is (989) 354-2487.
- Plan around weekday hours. Listed service hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Trips outside those hours can be arranged if you set them up in advance.
- Ask for the fare when you book. TBTA doesn't post a fixed fare for Montmorency County. Fares depend on which routes are running that day or on a contract, and the agency asks riders to call for the exact amount.
- Ask about out-of-county trips. Trips outside the service area are available by special request for seniors, people with disabilities and nonprofit agencies, at a different rate.
One detail on that same page causes confusion. It lists DART fares of $1.50 regular and $0.75 reduced for city residents, and $3 and $1.50 for non-city residents. DART is TBTA's Dial-A-Ride program, which runs through an agreement with the City of Alpena. Those prices don't apply to a pickup in Hillman or Atlanta.
Step one is the one the grant is aimed at. The day-ahead requirement and the empty drive from Alpena are linked. When a vehicle has to come over from Alpena, the schedule has to be set well in advance.
What Changes When the Base Moves
Here is what the state and TBTA have described so far, and how each piece ties back to where the vehicles are kept.
- Rides within the county. The proposed service covers travel inside Montmorency County. With vans based locally, a trip from Lewiston to Hillman wouldn't need a vehicle to drive in from Alpena first.
- An Atlanta–Hillman connection. MLive's roundup of the awards lists the project as the "Montmorency County Microtransit Expansion" and names the Atlanta–Hillman link as part of it.
- A transfer at the county line. Riders headed for Alpena would switch vehicles at the county line instead of riding one van the whole way. According to WBKB, the transfer is meant to get Montmorency County residents to medical appointments, shopping and jobs in Alpena.
The transfer is a smart design choice. If county-based vans drove all the way to Alpena, they'd be away from the county for hours and the shorter local response times would disappear. A handoff at the line keeps local vehicles available for local trips.
The Order It Happens In
Riders shouldn't expect new vans in the first phase. The state says the service starts with vehicles TBTA already operates, and two new vehicles built to Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards come later. WBKB reported the same sequence.
Routes and schedules will shift once ridership data comes in. TBTA plans to track ridership, miles driven without passengers, operating costs and how well healthcare trips are coordinated. Of those, empty miles is the number that shows whether moving the base pays off.
Several basics are still open. The state announcement and the news coverage give no calendar launch date, no town or address for the local base, and no fare schedule for the new service. Until TBTA announces those, the phone number above is the most reliable source.
Who Pays Once the Grant Runs Out
The $678,366 is startup money. Gov. Whitmer's Oct. 13 announcement lists TBTA's award, under Alpena County, as one line in a statewide round totaling $64,995,416. According to WBKB, TBTA plans to cover ongoing costs from several sources: federal formula funds, healthcare transportation contracts, fare revenue and county partnerships.
Healthcare contracts are on that list for a reason. Medical appointments in Alpena show up in nearly every description of the project, and coordinating healthcare trips is one of the metrics TBTA will track. The trips that justify the service are also a likely funding source.
The phrase "county partnerships" is the part Montmorency County residents may hear more about. The county's 2026 millage resolution proposes 0.9296 mills for eight years for general operating purposes. It isn't a transit millage, and no county funding commitment to the new service has been made public yet. If one comes up, it will be on a Board of Commissioners agenda, which the county posts on its meetings page.
Until the county-based vans start running, the most useful thing a rider can do hasn't changed: call TBTA at (989) 354-2487 a day ahead, ask for the fare, and book the Alpena appointment early.
At Hillman Real Estate, we'll be watching for the launch date and the base location along with you. If you hear something from TBTA before we do, or want to talk about how getting around fits into life in Montmorency County, get in touch. We'd be glad to hear from you.
