RTA planning to have all hands on deck Sunday for Cleveland's St. Patrick's Day Parade

CLEVELAND - The RTA said it's increasing services all day Sunday for St. Patrick's Day. The Cleveland parade starts at 2:04 p.m. this year and hundreds of thousands are expected to head downtown.

Last year, the RTA estimates they provided 100,000 rides on St. Patrick's Day and sold 22,000 all-day passes at train stations for people heading to downtown events.

The RTA suggests to avoid the bigger crowds, people should come early to catch a train and stay later downtown before heading home. The RTA said the biggest rush is always two hours before the parade.

Spokesperson for the RTA Mary Shaffer said security on Sunday will be tight.

"We have a full staff scheduled for Sunday. We've got our canine units, we've got all the transit police officers out, we've got service quality supervisors who are talking with the train operators, we have people in the rail yard taking care of the trains cleaning them as they go through," Shaffer said.

The RTA said on Sunday be patient, ignore schedules, and get to a train station. There will be additional service.

Also you can follow the the RTA on Twitter (@gcrta) for information on free parking lots and service updates.

Keep in mind, there will be reroutes on the trolleys and several downtown buses due to the parade.

newsnet5.com will live stream the parade online and on your mobile device