Nearly 30 years after a major bus line stopped providing public transportation for the counties of Pope and Hardin, The Golden Circle Senior Citizen Center was awarded a two year demonstration program to provide transportation in the area. In April of 1977, Rides (then standing for Rural Initiative Development of Effective Services) began operations with four, 15-passenger vans to primarily bring people to nutrition centers and deliver meals to the homebound.
Since then, Rides Mass Transit District (RMTD) has expanded with routes connecting eighteen southeastern Illinois counties, and continues to proudly serve the southern Illinois area with clean, comfortable, convenient, and cost effective public transportation.
| 1977-1978 | Awarded Section 147 Research & Development Grant. |
| 1980 | Rides Expanded Into Gallatin & Saline County Receiving Section 18 Funding. |
| 1989 | Rides Expanded Its Services To include White County. |
| 1990 | Rides Formed The First Rural Mass Transit District In Illinois, RMTD. |
| 1994 | Rides begins Providing A Limited Service In Hamilton County. |
| 1997 | Wayne & Hamilton Counties Joined The District. |
| 1998 | Edwards & Wabash Counties Joined The District. |
| 2000 | Rides Mass Transit District was presented the Transit System of the Year Award from the CTAA, Community Transportation Association of America in Fort Lauderdale, FL during EXPO 2000 |
| 2001 | August: Shawnee Queen River Taxi began operations as part of the Rides Mass Transit District. |
| 2002 | September: RMTD’s 1st CEO retires after 25 years |
| October: Bill Jung assumes CEO position. | |
| October: RMTD Administration Offices relocate to Harrisburg, Illinois. | |
| 2005 | May: Rides Mass Transit District is 1 of 5 national transportation systems to win the United We Ride Leadership Award in St Louis, MO at the Community Transportation Association of America’s Expo 2005. |
| 2005 | Lawrence & Richland Counties Joined The District |
| 2006 | Crawford County Joined The District |
| 2007 | Jasper County Joined The District |
| 2007 | Williamson County Joined The District |
| 2009 | Cumberland County Joined The District |
| 2011 | Shawnee Queen River Taxi is no longer available |
| 2013 | Clark & Edgar Counties Joined the District |
| 2019 | 2019 Bill Jung retires as RMTD CEO and Adam Lach assumes CEO position. RMTD begins operating SIU Saluki Express service in Carbondale. |
| 2022 | RMTD moves into new administration office located at 1304 Frank Leberman Drive- Harrisburg |