Greenlink extends bus hours

By Sonia Mohinani  

FEBRUARY 17, 2011 2:46 p.m. (0)

The Greenlink bus system will merge two routes on March 5 to create a new route with longer hours.

The route, which runs through the Berea area, will now run from 5:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

Shelia Schmitt, the general manager of Greenlink said changes and improvements are always in the works as they look to improve services to customers. A key part in this new route that will address increases in ridership is the expansion of hours offered to customers.

In a public hearing on Feb. 10 at the Hunters Park Community Center, representatives of Greenlink, Greenville Transit Authority and the Greenville Department of Public Transportation addressed questions from riders and the media on the changes.

The new Route 9 will offer more to riders without costing Greenlink additional funds.

“We’re doing as much as we can with as limited funding as we have,” said Carl L. Jackson, director of public transportation for the city of Greenville.

Jackson said the 11 bus routes running serve more than 702,000 people. The busiest route is Augusta (Route 10), which serviced almost 91,000 customers in 2010.

Trey Fouchè has been a member of the Greenville Transit Authority Board of Directors for more than two years and said the board is always trying to expand coverage and hours for riders.

For the scheduled changes, he said “Things like this are great, because we’re expanding hours without any cost to the system or the rider.”

Fouchè said most of Greenlink’s funding is either through the FTA (Federal Transit Authority), both the city and the county, support from riders and a little bit of money through the state.

Greenlink has a master plan that includes among other things Bus Rapid Transit or BRT, which is sort of high-speed bus service, a dedicated bus line, Fouchè said.

Right now, the board member said the bus system is doing a good job of making services more efficient, but it needs more funding. The board is looking to see if all new changes will fit into the master plan. And as a large community, Fouchè said people need to be considering making important issues into financial realities.

“There’s a lot of talk about transportation in Greenville; that’s a good thing,” Fouchè said. “We want to be a part of that conversation.”