The story
20th century
LANTA was founded in March 1972 in response to meet growing public transportation needs in Lehigh and Northampton. The solution was to create a bi-county, municipal authority that would operate all public transit services in the two counties. Lehigh Valley Transit Company, a private for-profit entity, operated transit services in the Valley. LANTA is governed by the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority board, which has ten voting and two non-voting members appointed by county executives.
In 1973, the Authority replaced the entire 65-vehicle fleet with modern air-conditioned transit coaches. In 1974, LANTA added 30% more service hours and established a peak/off-peak fare structure offering discounts in the off-peak hours and Saturdays to encourage ridership. Seniors, through a state lottery funded program, were offered free fare access during off-peak hours and weekends in 1975.
The Authority's main service is in the urbanized area of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton and surrounding Lehigh Valley boroughs and townships. About 380,000 people live within 3/4 mile of a fixed-route bus line. About 15,000 trips are taken daily on the metro city transit system.
In 1985, as the Lehigh Valley transformed from a manufacturing-based economy to a more service and retail-based economy, LANTA was completely revamped, and a new "Metro" system was introduced. This included a color-coded route information system to make riding transit more user-friendly. The following year, discounted fares were introduced as LANTA raised the case fares but kept ticket and pass prices the same and providing frequent riders with a 25% discount.
In 1988, Metro Plus services for the elderly and people with disabilities were introduced. Fully accessible vans are available through contracts with private operators to take people to destinations door-to-door for a higher, zoned fare.
21st century
On October 21, 2001, LANTa began offering Sunday bus service to further increase access to public transit. The service is funded through revenues from the farebox, a grant from the Pennsylvania Lottery program with revenue generated by rides taken on the system by seniors 65 and older, grants from Lehigh and Northampton counties, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and the Federal Transit Administration. Combined these grants pay approximately 60% of the cost of operation; the remaining funds come through the lottery program and passenger fares.
Approximately 2,000 trips are taken daily on the Metro Plus paratransit system. A transportation center was established in Bethlehem and centers in Allentown and Easton are under consideration.
The agency has grown in more recent years, adding more and more bus routes throughout the Lehigh Valley. Ridership has grown 75% since LANTA's inception. LANTA was formerly involved with The Slater Express Van, Silverline Express, and The Bethlehem Loop.
Read the full text
In August 2011, a new LANtaBus system was introduced that changed the route naming scheme from letters to one-to-three digits. Routes are broken down into six categories, corresponding to the first digit of the line number, and further broken down into specific routes after that in accordance with their second and third digit. For example, LANtaBus route 108 is a trunk route that offers service from Fountain Hill to the Bethlehem Square Shopping center. LANtaBus route 410 provides service for the Allentown School District and only operates during the school year. New bus stop signs were also introduced throughout the system that lists the routes that operate at the stop, compared to the old signs that only displayed a picture of a bus and the words "LANTA Metro".
In 2023, LANTA introduced Enhanced Bus Service (EBS), the first bus rapid transit system in the Lehigh Valley. EBS provides limited stop express service to select stops along core network corridors between Trexlertown and Easton, with the goal of providing headways of 15-minutes or less. Currently under implementation in a multi-phased approach, the system consists of two lines: the Green Line, connecting Whitehall to South Bethlehem, and the Blue Line, connecting Trexlertown to Easton, with the two routes sharing a common route between Allentown and Bethlehem. This allows for continuous 15-minute service between the two cities, a first for the region. Future plans include dedicated boarding stations, traffic signal prioritization, queue jump lanes, and dedicated median bus lanes.
In 2025, the Lehigh Valley Mall requested that LANta move from their transit center at the mall due to safety concerns.
LANta implemented fare hikes and cuts to their bus routes in 2026 due to a lack of state funding.
From Wikipedia’s article on LANta, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4