Several routes will have detours during the festival and parade this weekend.
The Illinois Association of Technical Accident Investigators (IATAI) will be conducting crash tests at several locations near South Taylor and East Stanford on Wednesday, October 4th. Routes 10 and 11 will be detouring around the area from 8:15 AM to 5:00 PM.
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Route 11 will be making trips from downtown to Capital City Shopping Center and back. A helper bus will be used to make connections between CCSC and the rest of the usual Route 11 south of Stevenson. Do not hesitate to contact our dispatch if you have questions: 217-522-5531
Several streets downtown will be closed for the Route 66 Mother Road Festival being held this weekend so we will be relocating both the day and night transfer centers to 5th & Jackson. Here's a listing of the detour maps for each route:
- Route 1 - North 5th
- Route 2 - North 9th
- Route 3 - Grandview
- Route 4 - West Jefferson
- Route 5 - North Walnut
- Route 6 - East Cook / Ash / White Oaks Mall
- Route 7 - West Washington
- Route 8 - 1st & Highland
- Route 9 - M. L. King
- Route 10 - Southern View / Laketown
- Route 11 - UIS
- Route 13 - MacArthur / Westchester / Jerome
- Route 14 - Wabash / Prairie Crossing / Gaines Mill
- Route 15 - South 11th / UIS / LLCC
- Route 16 - Bergen Park / Sand Hill
- Route 18 - Lawrence / Knox Knolls
- Route 901 - North Side Night Service
- Route 902 - Southeast Side Night Service
- Route 903 - West Side Night Service
- Route 905 - UIS / LLCC Night Service
Several routes will also have to make slightly different detours on Friday, September 22nd due to the parade, starting at 5:45 pm and lasting until the parade concludes. These can be seen on this map.
On Saturday, May13, 2017 at 6:00am, due to the 5K event downtown,
the transfer center will be located on the south side of Monroe (State Capitol side) between
2nd & College, returning to the regular transfer center at 5th & Capitol at 11:45am. Routes will
stage as follows:
- Between College and Spring on Monroe:
- 1 N. 5th
- 2 N. 9th
- 3 Grandview
- 4 W. Jefferson
- 5 N. Walnut
- 7 W. Washington
- 13 MacArthur/Westchester
- 16 Bergen Park/Sand Hill
- 18 Lawrence/Knox Knolls
- Between Spring and 2nd Streets on Monroe:
- 6 E. Cook
- 8 1st/Highland
- 9 M.L. King
- 10 Southern View/Laketown
- 11 UIS
- 14 Wabash/Prairie Crossing
- 15 So. 11th/UIS/LLC
As usual, buses will be in service on Veterans Day (Friday, November 9th) but will be running Saturday schedules which means some routes will run every hour instead of every half-hour. We have included this holiday service in our GTFS data so that supported navigation apps will be able to give you the correct information.
Additionally, the daytime transfer center will be moved one block south to 5th & Jackson during the Veterans Day parade, from approximately 8:15 AM to 11:45 AM. After the parade concludes the transfer center will be moved back to its normal location at 5th & Capitol.
Springfield, IL – The Springfield Mass Transit District (SMTD) will implement changes to one route and three schedules beginning June 6th. In addition, a new Lincoln Tomb & War Memorials Express route will begin the evening of Tuesday, June 7th.
“A year ago, we began an annual process of evaluating our entire system each spring and making recommendations for changes to address everything from efficiency to service gaps to route performance,” said Steve Schoeffel, SMTD’s Service Planning and Marketing Specialist. “These changes are a product of that evaluation and recommendation process.” He listed the changes passengers can expect beginning Monday, June 6th:
1. Route 8 – 1st & Highland will be simplified into one path with a single schedule. The route currently runs two different paths. One serves Highland and North Street, and one serves Highland and Outer Park. While SMTD has received positive feedback on the addition of North St. and Outer Part to the route, the current split route schedule is too complicated. The new route will follow the existing route from downtown to 1st & Outer Park, then travel west to MacArthur, south to Highland, east to Spring, south to North St. and North St. to Stanford Avenue, then to Scheels. The return trip to downtown will follow virtually the same path in reverse.
2. Route 5 – N. Walnut will begin 30-minute service throughout the day. The route currently has 1-hour off-peak service between 9:15am and 2:15pm. Service every thirty minutes throughout the day will begin on this route on June 6th.
3. Route 18 – Lawrence/Knox Knolls will begin hourly off-peak service between the hours of 9:15am and 2:15pm. Currently, this route has 30-minute service throughout the day, but considerably higher ridership during this time on Route 5 makes switching thirty minute service to Route 5 a more-efficient use of SMTD’s resources. This route will also begin its inbound trip at Lawrence & Dickinson rather than the current Dickinson & Cranmer stop, and it will begin that inbound trip at :27 after the hour all day and :57 after the hour all day except the off-peak hours 9:15am to 2:15pm.
Lincoln's Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
4. Route 11 – UIS will only stop at the County Health Department building during their regular office hours. Monday through Friday, the first bus to stop here will be at
8:26am and the last bus will depart to downtown at 5:29pm.
5. Lincoln Tomb & War Memorials Express service will begin Tuesday evening at 5:30pm at the Washington Street side of the Old State Capitol and will travel non- stop to Lincoln’s Tomb and the War Memorials at Oak Ridge Cemetery at 5:30pm, 6:30pm and 7:30pm June through August. This route is designed around the weekly Flag Retreat ceremony at Lincoln’s Tomb at 7pm on Tuesday nights. The last bus will leave Lincoln’s Tomb at 7:46pm and the War Memorials at 7:50pm in order to be out of the cemetery before it closes at 8pm. Fare will be a one-time $2 per person charge, and the ticket can be used multiple times on the day it is first used.
“What’s New Summer 2016 at SMTD!” brochures containing all of these details are being distributed by operators on buses and at SMTD’s offices in the coming days.
“We believe these changes will be a net positive for our passengers, operators and staff,” Schoeffel said. “Route 8 will be much simpler for the public to use, and we’re excited to offer more frequent service on one of our busiest routes, Route 5 N. Walnut, which serves Memorial Medical Center.”
SMTD is considering the Lincoln Tomb & War Memorials Express a pilot program.
“We are cautiously optimistic about how well this new express route will do,” Schoeffel added. “After this summer, we will evaluate ridership and any feedback we get from the community to see if it’s something we want to continue, make permanent or even expand. The future will depend on how well the route performs this summer.”
SMTD’s routes and other information can be found at SMTD.org and several apps and mobile tools like Google Transit, Moovit and TripGo.
The Springfield Mass Transit District (SMTD) Board of Trustees approved a plan July 27th to study bus stops throughout the SMTD system, make proposals for adding or removing bus stops, take public comment and implement changes over the next eighteen months. On December 2nd from Noon to 1:00PM and from 4:30PM to 6:00PM a public comment meeting will be held in the Board Room of SMTD, 928 S. 9th Street, regarding proposed bus stop changes on Route 11 - UIS.
“The goal of SMTD’s Bus Stop Optimization Plan is to provide balance between on-time service and convenient pedestrian access to bus stops,” said Steve Schoeffel, SMTD’s Service Planning and Marketing Specialist. “Through a route-by-route analysis, review and implementation schedule, we plan to complete this project in late 2017.”
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.
“This is the fourth route we have addressed so far, and of special note this time is the fact that this route serves the University of Illinois – Springfield (UIS),” Schoeffel pointed out. “There are no changes that should directly affect most UIS students. We do plan to remove a set of stops near West Lake Shore Drive and Edgar Lee Masters Drive, but we understand those stops are no longer used by students. We will continue to serve the Public Affairs Center.”
In addition to the UIS campus, Route 11 also serves South Grand Avenue east of 7th Street, the County Health Department, Taylor Avenue from South Grand to Stevenson Drive, West Lake Shore Drive from Stevenson Drive to the UIS campus, and 9th Street between South Grand and Cook, including SMTD’s administrative offices.
Schoeffel said that, so far, along the three routes already completed, there have been virtually no complaints. “SMTD does our best to inconvenience as few of our passengers as possible while making these changes that we believe ultimately benefit everyone with more reliable, on-time service.”
Several route changes are going into effect on July 1st, 2015.
Eliminated Routes
- Night Service 11:45 PM (Last) Trip - 10:45 PM will be the last trip on all Night Service routes. Buses will return to the Transfer Center at 11:45 PM, but will take passengers no further.
- Historic Sites - Passengers can ride Route 1 (North 5th) and Route 5 (North Walnut).
- Route 19 - Will be replaced with a morning supplemental route that departs the downtown Transfer Center at 7:20 AM and an afternoon supplemental that departs the Sangamon County Regional Office of Education (SCROE) at 4:30 PM. The schedules are as follows:
| Transfer Center A | SCROE | SoS | IDOT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:20 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:40 AM | 7:50 AM |
| SCROE | SoS | IDOT | Transfer Center A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:30 PM | 4:35 PM | 4:45 PM | 5:00 PM |
Other passengers can ride the Route 6 (East Cook), Route 9 (MLK), Route 11 (UIS), or Route 15 (S. 11th / UIS / LLCC) buses either on or within two to four blocks of the current Route 19.
- Southwind Park - A stop at the park is added to the Route 15 (S. 11th / UIS / LLCC) on Saturdays. Passengers riding the northern two-thirds of the route can ride the Route 10 (Laketown / Southern View). In addition to eliminating a low-performing route, this change makes travel to and from Southwind Park easier for UIS and LLCC students.
- State Fair - Passengers can ride Route 1 (North 5th) and Route 2 (North 9th) on Monday-Saturday.
- Willard Ice Supplemental Tripper - Passengers can ride Route 4 (West Jefferson).
- Park Tower Supplemental Tripper - Passengers can ride Route 14 (Wabash / Prairie Crossing) both ways on 2nd / Allen.
- Christ the King Supplemental Tripper - Route 14 (Wabash / Prairie Crossing) can be utilized on Barberry & Chatham Road.
- Country Club to SHS (AM) Supplemental Tripper - Route 18 (Lawrence / Knox Knolls) will take to College & Monroe and Route 7 (West Washington / White Oaks Mall) will take to Monroe & Walnut or Monroe & Lewis.
- Carl Sandburg (PM) Supplemental Tripper - Route 13 (Sherwood Plaza) inbound stop at Kirkley Lane.
Combined School Supplemental Trippers
- Add SHS (East Cook) Tripper to SHS (MLK / South 15th)
- Add Laketown (SEHS) Tripper to Southern View (SEHS)
- Add SEHS (Laketown) Tripper to (SEHS) Southern View
State Holiday Hours
Buses will run in Saturday Service format on the following holidays:
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 18th)
- Lincoln's Birthday (February 12)
- Washington's Birthday / Presidents Day (3rd Monday of February)
- Veterans Day (November 11)
These and other planned service changes can be found on our Service Calendar.
The changes were the first recommendations of what SMTD staff plans to make an annual occurrence, utilizing analyses of passenger counts on each route and implementation of performance standards to produce the most efficient service possible for Springfield. That is not to say that routes will be eliminated every year.
"No one enjoys eliminating routes," said Managing Director Frank Squires, "but the reality is that, by reducing these clear inefficiencies, we are now in a much better position to provide better service and passenger amenities moving forward. By constantly evaluating our service, we can make any necessary annual adjustments to keep us providing the best service possible with the resources available to us without too often inconveniencing our passengers, and we can more easily add service in the future if we’re operating at maximum efficiency."
Other changes made by SMTD will be publicized at dates closer to when they will affect passengers, such as State Fair service closer to the opening of the Illinois State Fair, school supplemental route changes closer to the first day of school later this summer and reduced service hours on certain state holidays.
