The Capital Area Rural Transportation System is adding new service to its Country Bus Route 403 that will increase access to Seton Medical Center Hays for residents of Luling and Lockhart.

The service will be provided on Tuesdays and Thursdays with three round trips per day in the morning, mid-day and afternoon.

CARTS Marketing Coordinator Dana Platt said the agency held 6–7 months of public meetings in Lockhart, Luling and surrounding communities.

"The feedback from the community was that they wanted service to Seton Hays," Platt said.

Steve Taylor, communications manager for Seton Healthcare Family, said the hospital provides a broad array of services, so it is an attractive place for Central Texas residents to get medical attention. The CARTS service can provide transportation for residents of Lockhart and Luling who may be without a car.

"Seton Hays, beyond just Hays County, also serves Caldwell and Gonzales counties and surrounding areas," Taylor said. "It has a higher level of medical services and care than our hospitals in places like Luling.

"We actually get a lot patients from Luling and some of those areas surrounding Hays County. They would rather go there than go to a hospital in Travis County."

The buses will leave from the parking lot of Walmart in Lockhart and transport passengers to the San Marcos CARTS Station, where they can connect with other local routes or CARTS Interurban routes, which take passengers to connections in Austin, San Marcos, Round Rock, Georgetown, Taylor, Lockhart, Luling, Burnet, Bertram, Liberty Hill, Marble Falls and Spicewood, as well as connections with Greyhound and Capital Metro.

The new service begins March 31, 2014.

CARTS is hosting three public meetings in March to discuss enhanced and expanded bus service with community members.