North Olmsted Municipal Bus Line

The North Olmsted Municipal Bus Line (NOMBL) was a public transit agency in Northeast Ohio. The NOMBL was one of the first and one of the oldest municipal transit systems in the United States and was in continuous operation for over 74 years. It served the cities of North Olmsted; Fairview Park; Olmsted Falls; Westlake; Rocky River; Olmsted Township; and parts of the west side of and downtown Cleveland. NOMBL does not refer to a single bus line, but rather a collection of routes which until 2005 was semi-autonomous but partially integrated into the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA).

NOMBL was founded as a division of the Village of North Olmsted in response to the discontinuation of the Cleveland-Southwestern interurban rail system; it began operations at 5:15 AM on March 1, 1931; its revenues on its first day of operation was $24.65. Until approximately 1972 the NOMBL was able to fund operational costs with farebox revenues. The City of North Olmsted had to begin some financial operating subsidies to NOMBL beginning in 1972 and also applied for financial operating and capital bus purchase assistance from UMTA until the GCRTA countywide Cuyahoga County 1% sales tax revenues began in September, 1975; in which NOMBL was then reimbursed for normal operating costs. Also, at this time all farebox revenues for NOMBL operated routes were collected by the GCRTA instead of the City of North Olmsted.

In February, 1982 the NOMBL garage and storage facility at 27311 Lorain Road was completely destroyed in a devastating fire. This fire also destroyed four City titled coaches, non-revenue vehicles, records boxes and the entire tire storage area and part rooms. The NOMBL main office and dispatch center in the adjacent two story former police station was left intact along with more current records. The City rented a former car dealership further west on Lorain Road and the entire NOMBL operation was relocated there for approximately eighteen months while a new garage was built at the original site of the destroyed garage.

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