As public transit use declines, officials look to shake up Metro bus system
After years of declining use of area MetroBus and MetroLink shuttles, officials in St. Clair County are looking for ways to reverse the trend.
St. Clair County’s Transit District (SCCTD) recently announced a nine-month study, dubbed Transit Vision 2020, hoped to help the county understand why use of the public transit has been in decline for the past five years and how the trend can be reversed.
“The study will look at changing service options with the goal of offering patrons faster, more frequent service,” a press release stated.
According to preliminary study data from SCCTD, annual Metrobus and MetroLink boardings have declined by 16.6 percent and 24.3 percent, respectively, since 2014. On average, MetroBus ridership is 9,500 during the week, 6,500 on Saturdays and 3,900 on Sundays.
Those numbers are expected to continue to fall in 2020, transit officials said.
The study is hoped to help inform decisions on existing and future transit services, improving design and operations to increase ridership and to further define public transit’s role in economic development and regional mobility.
SCCTD will be soliciting input from the public through several avenues until February, when the plan will be finalized.
District Managing Director Ken Sharkey said the project is estimated to cost $235,000, about 1 percent of the total cost of running transit in the area ever year that amounts to around $22 million.
He said the area is due for a study like this as well, seeing as its been several decades since the system was last analyzed.
“We haven’t done this in over a couple of decades so we view this as a way to save some funds and a way to put out service in a smarter way,” Sharkey said.
Years of declining use
Annually, 2.5 million riders ride the MetroLink in Illinois and 2.4 million use MetroBuses. An estimated 237,000 riders use public transit for special events.
Currently, there are 14 local routes, three shuttle routes, three express routes and two MetroLink lines with 11 stops in St. Clair County. MetroBus Route 1, Main Street to State Street, accounts for 31 percent of the total weekday system ridership.
The preliminary study also showed that currently, most routes are carrying 20 or fewer passengers an hour. Only two routes carry more than 20 riders an hour. Routes with 10 to 20 riders per hour will be “up for revision” in the redesign.
Express and shuttle routes make up a large amount of the lowest-performing routes. Officials with SCCTD said those routes would warrant “close examination.”
The preliminary study also identified that St. Clair’s population is expected to decline in the westernmost part of the county, where most of the routes are located, and grow elsewhere. A part of the study will be identifying where that growth could happen and making route changes based on that information.
Another important factor the preliminary study found is connections to MetroLink stations. Bus routes that connect to those stations have better ridership.
Study to examine current stops and times
Conversations with the public about how to improve the system have already begun, Sharkey said, and will continue until August. He said another important resource when completing the study will be route drivers, who interact with riders daily.
“They’re the closest to the customers,” he said. “They’re the frontline people and are interacting with our riders and customers every day.”
The study also will analyze travel patterns, current population and employment trends and evaluate future development plans to determine potential new demand.
The current system’s routes and stops also will be analyzed to determine what works well and what could be improved.
By February, when the study is expected to be completed, the district hopes to finalize a new service plan, an implementation plan that includes rollouts of recommended service changes, a stakeholder involvement plan, a financial sustainability plan, evaluate vehicle requirements needed to support new service and fund the new stations, stops and shelters.
The study’s website will provide study-related data, interim and final study findings, dates of public outreach events, online surveys, a place to submit comments and questions about the study and a survey.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 5:00 AM.