The Springfield Mass Transit District (SMTD) Board of Trustees approved a plan July 27th to study bus stops on routes throughout the SMTD system, make proposals for adding or removing bus stops, take public comment and implement changes over the next eighteen months. On September 30th at 4:00PM to 6:00PM at the Springfield Housing Authority offices, 200 N. 11th Street, a public comment meeting will be held regarding proposed bus stop consolidation on the Grandview Route 3. At the same time, staff from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) will be on hand to gather information to be considered in the Statewide Public Transportation Plan.

“Over the years, SMTD has continued to add bus stops throughout the city for various purposes, and we have reached the point that we have considerable overlap of the areas meant to be covered by a single bus stop,” said Steve Schoeffel, SMTD’s Service Planning and Marketing Specialist. “We are continuing to methodically study and update our system’s bus stops to move us closer to widely-accepted industry standards.”

SMTD believes the changes will still serve the public well with plenty of bus stops while allowing buses to cover routes faster with fewer stops made so close together – sometimes fewer than two hundred feet apart. This public comment part of the overall plan, while not legally required, is intended to give the public the opportunity to bring any specific concerns they might have to SMTD before bus stops are changed.

“We are not randomly removing every other bus stop, or anything close to that,” Schoeffel added. “We believe we can study our current stops, make some changes with the public’s input, and improve the system for our passengers and for traffic in general. Our goal would be to upgrade the actual bus stop signs once we have completed the optimization process across the entire system.”

IDOT will also be present to gather information for the development of the Statewide Public Transportation Plan. Attendees will have the opportunity to provide information on transportation needs and review transit data collected thus far for the area of Adams, Brown, Cass, Christian, Hancock, Logan, Macoupin, Mason, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, Pike, Sangamon, Schuyler and Scott Counties.