Rockford Mass Transit District Unveils New Route System

In what has probably been the most anticipated event in the last two years, the Rockford Mass Transit District introduced its new routes and schedules on Monday, March 1, 2004. Effective that date, RMTD introduced three new routes and changed some of its existing routes. The District has made these changes in an attempt to improve commute times and to expand the District's service area. The ultimate hope is that the changes will eventually lead to an increase in ridership. 

In A Nutshell 
First and foremost, RMTD has tried very hard to pare down the routes in an attempt to be consistent on each run, all day long. Gone are the alternating headways and complicated route deviations. With the exception of the Growth Enterprise runs and the Center of Hope runs, every route services the same area, each and every trip. Additionally, RMTD will no longer have separate routes for Saturdays. Not including Night/Sunday service, under the new route structure, the same service that is provided Monday thru Fridays, will also now include Saturdays. Saturdays will no longer be a separate route structure. To simplify things even more, RMTD has taken the Night Schedule and the Sunday Schedule and combined them into one route structure reflecting the Sunday routes. Now, service options are either days - Monday thru Saturdays, or Night/Sunday Service.

In addition to streamlining the simplicity of the routes, RMTD has also added new service. One of the objectives of the route study is to start initiating the more efficient grid system into the community. To accomplish this goal, the Big Loop route is being unveiled. The Big Loop route is basically nothing more than ... a Big Loop. It will run a loop around the outer edges of the RMTD service area and more importantly, will offer connection points with all of the other routes within the system. The hope is that as passengers become familiar with Big Loop, they will use Big Loop to connect to other routes, rather than ride all the way to the downtown hub to transfer. Big Loop, if used effectively, should ease a passenger's commute time, in some cases by up to 20 to 30 minutes. The Big Loop route runs bi-directionally, which means that as one bus is being dispatched from downtown to begin its journey north, another bus will dispatch at the same time traveling south. In so doing, Big Loop North, and Big Loop South provide service to key transfer points at 25 minute headways all day long!

Riders traveling the North Main & Huffman corridors will also be pleased to learn that service will be consistent on these roads all the time with the introduction of the #3 Huffman Route. The Huffman route will leave downtown and travel via Ridge and Auburn to Huffman every hour.

Passengers will no longer have to deal with the long headway delays in the middle of the day in this area. #4 North Main riders will also be pleased by this service, which will actually spend most of its trip on North Main Street and will be consistent every hour. There will also be service along North Main from Fulton to Auburn on the inbound trip, which is new under this system. Outbound service will continue to make the Cumberland/Fulton Street swing. 

The #6 Kilburn route is also a new route to the RMTD system. This service picks up portions of the old Kenmore route and will service the Center of Hope twice a day. And, to round out the system with new service, a new, #7 South Main route is being introduced. The #7 South Main will actually service S. Main Street every hour, which is a vast improvement over the current intermittent service to areas like South Rock Industrial Park along this corridor. 

Finally, the Alpine Crosstown route, #20, will run the entire length of Alpine, from Rock Valley College on Samuelson Road, to the Target, Home Depot, 173 corridor in Machesney Park. This route, much like the Big Loop, is not only meant to service new areas in Machesney Park, but will also connect with several other routes along the way. 

The Greatest Impact
Perhaps the areas that will see the greatest impact from the system are those riders on the Greenwood route. The current, #14 Greenwood route has been drastically revamped. Basically, RMTD has taken an un-productive, 2 hour route and pared it down into three routes, hitting the areas where a known passenger base exists, and dropping off the areas where there is no demand. The #13 Rural route will now pick up most of the Greenwood route, reaching the YMCA, Park Terrace Apartments, and heading down Rural to Parkview, before returning back to the Transfer Center. The area off of Alpine by Highcrest Road, formerly on the Greenwood route, will now be serviced by the #20 Alpine Crosstown route, both inbound and outbound. The Arnold Avenue quadrant of the city will be serviced by #11 East State Street and/or Big Loop. "The Greenwood route, under the old route structure, meandered all over the northeast portion of the city, sometimes up to two hours," states RMTD Executive Director Richard McVinnie. "By dissecting the route and creating new routes, we truly believe we have saved many of our passengers literally hours in travel time each week."

Another significant change to the RMTD system is the consistent daily service to Midvale Apartments. Monday thru Saturdays, the new #11 East State Street route will travel down Arnold to Midvale every hour.

Midvale's residents have been without consistent fixed route service for so long. RMTD can now offer a safe means for Midvale residents to get to the services and destinations of their choosing.

Finally, with all this information, the old RMTD system map is no longer a viable option for communicating the information to the public. Therefore, effective with the new routes, RMTD will also be introducing a Schedule Booklet. Included in this booklet will be ALL the routes; weekdays, AND Nights/Sundays. Each route map and time table will be highlighted on its own page and a centerfold full system map will also be included. If anyone with a visual impairment should require a supplemental version in large text, those are available on an individual route basis. RMTD will also have this booklet available in an accessible format shortly. If anyone should require one of these supplemental versions, simply notify the RMTD Administrative Offices.

The Time Has Come
While the changes to the new routes may seem foreboding at the present time, the overall intention of the changes is to ultimately increase ridership for the District. "Our ridership has been flat for several years now", says Rick McVinnie. "The time has come for us to look at areas of our city that needed service where there was none before and to improve service where productivity is low. This new route design is the work of many individuals who have spent many hours evaluating ridership needs. I have every confidence that when the initial kinks are worked out, we will see increases in both ridership and customer satisfaction."

The new routes have taken over a year to develop. The initial route structure was formulated by MacDonald Transit, a transportation consulting firm located in Houston, Texas. MacDonald Transit started the process by assisting RMTD staff with a Boarding and Alighting Study. The District evaluated every bus route throughout the entire system. Based on these trends, MacDonald formulated the skeletal on plan for the system. 
Once the outline was in place, RMTD held a series of 7 public hearings and 5 small group meetings to bare the bones, so to speak, of the plan to the riding public. The public hearings provided us with many invaluable suggestions," comments RMTD Public Relations Specialist, Lisa Brown. "For example, in speaking with the Brewington Oaks residents, we learned that the Kmart on Sandy Hollow is a lifeline to many of their daily needs. We would never have known this had we not met with them. As a result, the shelter stop by the Kmart will continue to stay on the Kishwaukee route. We also realized that Public Aid had been overlooked in the basic plan. Needless to say, we rectified this situation immediately."

The next few months will be confusing to many transit riders. Rockford Mass Transit wants and is encouraging everyone to call for assistance with any portion of the system that is not clear. "Our staff is ready to assist in any way we can," states McVinnie. "We are encouraging riders to call with questions, comments and concerns. If anyone feels they need additional training on the new routes, we encourage you to call RAMP. We have a contractual agreement with RAMP to assist with bus training for situations such as these. Finally, we want everyone to realize that we will be doing tweaking throughout the next few months. If something is truly wrong with the routes, we will work to correct it by the fall if at all possible. RMTD does ask though, that you be patient and really learn the new system before making final judgment. We understand that change is difficult for many. However, we are confident that once you get used to the change, it will truly make your travel quicker and easier. Our goal at RMTD is to truly offer a transit system that does provide access to dreams."