Talk:Ben Franklin Transit

Trans+Plus
It should be noted that Trans+Plus does not operate on Sundays as it once did. -- allen四names 16:56, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

It does now, as of October 1, 2013. I've updated the Wiki to reflect this -- Bradfordbrian (talk) 11:18, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Bus routes
Information about bus routes should be verified by schedules published (internet or print) by Ben Franklin Transit. -- allen四names 16:43, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Need for more sections
I think this article needs sections on history, other services, and fares. I may do the fares and other services sections soon but I am not ready do the history section yet. (See Verifiability.) -- allen四names 18:21, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Got the "Fares" section done. -- allen四names 20:25, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
 * All the sections are now in place if not how I thought it would be done. I am still concerned about sources. Newspapers such as the Tri-City Herald have been copied onto microfilm so that may be one possibility. -- allen四names 19:45, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Tri-City Herald on microfilm
I have found out that the Washington State Library (Using Newspaper Microfilm Resources at Washington State Library) and two branches of the Mid-Columbia Libraries (Magazines & Newspapers | Mid-Columbia Libraries: See Newspapers Available at Mid-Columbia Libraries. (PDF)) have microfilm copies of the Tri-City Herald. Hopefully I will be able to find the articles I will be looking for. -- allen四names 01:49, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

The Richland Public Library has rolls of microfilm copies of the Tri-City Herald. I will have to learn how to use the microfilm reader before I can view them. -- allen四names 08:19, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

I have done some preliminary research at the Kennewick Branch of the Mid-Columbia Library, 1620 S. Union, Kennewick, WA on November 2, 2009. The first of the two articles was "Tri-City bus issue questions answered" by Bob Woebler of the Tri-City Herald, April 5, 1981, "SECOND PAGE ONE". (Tri-City Herald on mircofilm roll dated April 1981) According to this article the ballot is dated May 19, 1981 to approve a sales tax of three-tenths of a cent for a transit system in the Tri-Cities. The second article on the front page of the May 20, 1981 edition of the Tri-City Herald "Tri-City voters approve mass transit system by 2-1" also by Bob Woebler announces the formation of the Benton-Franklin Public Transportation Benefit Area. -- allen四names 02:19, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Update. The Pasco branch no longer has microfilm. The information at the Mid-Columbia Libraries web site should be corrected shortly. -- allen四names 19:15, 3 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I think that if you want to dispute the founding date as stated in the History section of the Ben Franklin Transit website, you should research the actual legislation that created the Public Transportation Benefit Area. Who are you, or a newspaper, to rain on their birthday party? Are the dates you quote, the dates of the newspaper articles? From your extensive research, you could have come up with something more substantial to add to the article than this. You have taken possession of this article and have also inserted many unexplained, seemingly unrelated, external links. Since I am unable to access the local resources available to you, I will leave you to clean it up without my inteference at this time. Good luck. Secondarywaltz (talk) 13:39, 6 November 2009 (UTC)


 * If I wanted to dispute the information I could take it to the Three Rivers Transit Center where BFT has a sales counter, meetings room, and clippings from the Tri-City Herald. To deal with your first question this article is about Ben Franklin Transit not for it. Your other question has been answered by the references to the Tri-City Herald articles. (April 5, 1981 and May 20, 1981 respectively.) Extensive research requires more than getting the first article on the microfilm roll that mentions the proposed Public Transit Benefit Area and using that to get the headline article. Finally, you are not completely unable to access these articles. Here is contact information to the Kennewick branch.


 * Kennewick Public Library · 1620 S. Union St. · Kennewick, WA 99338 · Phone: +1-509-783-7878 · URL: http://www.midcolumbialibraries.org/
 * You may note that I did not include any email addresses. That is because Mozilla Firefox warned me of a problem with the security certificate being used. Contact a librarian and ask how you can obtain copies of the articles I cited. Interlibrary loan may be an option if your library has a microfilm reader (35mm), but if you live outside of the United States make sure to ask if this will be a problem. If you can access LexisNexis you may be able to view the articles yourself. (Institutional subscriptions noted.) WorldCat may also be of help, but I do not recommend that you resort to ProQuest[Sticker shock], at about $140US a roll and no sales of less than a year ($1680US) the price is pretty steep. -- allen四names 07:16, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Update: Google News Archive Search has some but not all issues of the Tri-City Herald of that time period. – allen四names 01:54, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Service changes
There are changes that will be made later this month. Please read the Tri-City Herald article linked below. Regards. – allen四names 01:29, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Cary, Annette. "Ben Franklin Transit Board OKs changes". Tri-City Herald. March 12, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2010.

Bus photos
I have uploaded the following photos to Wikimedia Commons. I hope these will be useful in improving this article. – Allen4names 17:14, 26 June 2011 (UTC)
 * File:Ben Franklin Transit 248.jpg
 * File:Ben Franklin Transit 262.jpg
 * File:Ben Franklin Transit 272.jpg
 * Someone may want to add information about the dial-a-ride fleet so here is a photo of one of the buses. Allen4names 15:51, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Adding Burbank
I have moved the following text here so that it can be rewritten or kept out as may be.

Valley Transit may not need to cooperate. See this link. – Allen4names (IPv6 contributions) 19:27, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Page flow redesign
I'm in the process of re-flowing the main page to make the TOC more useful. Feel free to make minor adjustments as seen fit, but please leave main headings intact. Bradfordbrian (talk) 05:51, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Also, we need to clean up the talk page a bit, it's all over the place Bradfordbrian (talk) 05:51, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

This is a test KML file based on a shapefile i procured. Template:Attached_KML/ Bradfordbrian (talk) 10:43, 27 January 2015 (UTC)


 * @Bradfordbrian: You should fix the link to the KML file to look something like Template:Attached KML/Ben Franklin Transit or [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Attached_KML/Ben_Franklin_Transit?action=raw KML file]. – Allen4names (contributions) 16:15, 31 January 2015 (UTC)