For the first time in recent history, Fayette County is about to be served by mass transit.

Bus service from Peachtree City to Hartsfield Airport is slated to begin June 1, and Fayetteville stops will be added a month later.

Phoenix Star Transportation Services has set up an initial schedule with departures as early as 4:30 a.m., and the last arrival back in Peachtree City at 8 p.m. Passengers are expected to come from neighboring Coweta County as well as the immediate Peachtree City area.

"We're going ahead and doing it as a test pilot program," said Stuart Hoff, president of the mass transit and charter bus service. "I hope it works."

Hoff has been meeting with officials at Delta Air Lines for more than a year in preparation for serving the area. Delta, in cooperation with the city of Peachtree City, surveyed its employees to determine how many would leave their cars at home and use a shuttle service, and 640 respondents indicated an interest.

But you don't have to work at Delta, or even at the airport, to use the service. Regular riders can get 22 round trips a month for an initial package price of $100, and those who want to use the shuttle to connect to MARTA at the airport, or as airline customers, can get single trip tickets.

Single trip tickets probably will cost about $5, said Hoff.

"I'm trying to lower [ticket costs]," said Hoff. If he can sell advertising on the buses, and if employers like Delta will apply for and receive federal subsidies of about $65 a month for each employee riding the buses, he'll be able to reduce ticket prices, he said.

"We've got to get the support of the public, though," he said. "[Subsidies] won't do any good if the buses are 20 percent full."

Hoff said he has invested about $600,000 in motor coaches equipped with bathrooms and rigged for television reception.

"We may want to start offering some entertainment on the ride," he said.

Various stores around the county have agreed to act as ticket agents, and they will be identified with signs stating that the stores are ticket agents and telling the destinations of the service. Those include the airport, Delta general office, Delta technical operations, MARTA, the general office annex and other midfield support offices.

For information or to order tickets, phone 678-364-1155. It's a local call.

If the service proves successful, Hoff's next venture will be to set up shuttle service for some of the larger industries in Peachtree City and in Coweta County, he said.

"I've contacted some of the biggest employers offering employee shuttle service," said Hoff. Among companies contacted are Newnan's Excel and Peachtree City's Panasonic, Cooper Lighting and CSX.

"If they will respond, we can get something going here," he said.

Next, by January Hoff said he hopes to provide county-wide mass transit in Fayette and Coweta. He is pushing governments in both counties to apply for federal subsidies to make the service more feasible. If the county governments do apply for the grants, though, there's no guarantee that Hoff's company will get the business.

"I'm hoping they will choose us," he said.

Regardless, he said, Fayette needs mass transit. The county continues to have problems with federal air quality standards, but even if state and federal road building funds are freed up, growing traffic congestion demands that local residents have alternatives to using their cars, he said.