SMTD COVID-19 Response Update (3/14/2020)

Service Updates:

• Route 114 UIS Express evening service has been suspended until UIS students return to classrooms.

• All supplemental service routes have been suspended until District 186 resumes classes.

• All other buses will continue running regular service until further notice.

Preventive Measures:

• Bus cleaning frequency has been been increased.

• Staff is being instructed to follow CDC guidelines on avoiding illness and what to do if you’re sick.

• Staff is being provided appropriate supplies like hand sanitiser, gloves, etc.

• Additional, more thorough deep-cleaning utilizing maintenance overtime is being considered.

• We continue to monitor county, state, and federal health agencies for the latest information.

How to Stay Informed on SMTD Service Status:

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We recommend creating an account on our Bus Tracker page and subscribing to the routes you use often so that you are notified as soon as something changes. We will also be pushing out manual alerts through our Google Transit feed so riders are notified if a route is suspended.

Schedule Updates for January 2020

A new schedule will begin on January 6th, 2020 and this gives us an opportunity to update some routes to address reported issues and make the system perform better overall.

Route 6 - Clear Lake / Junction Circle

Now that the Ash Street underpass is open, Route 6 will resume using Ash Street instead of detouring around it via Iles/Oberlin. Some slight changes to the time checks on the inbound portion of the schedule were also made to account for the difference in travel time.

Route 7 - West Washington

Route 7 travels to and from the west side of Springfield and downtown, providing connections both at the downtown transfer center and at White Oaks Mall. These connections must be reliable for them to be useful and the current version of the route is not as reliable as it could be. For comparison, here is a graph of the average on-time performance of Route 7 versus that of Route 3.

Daily On-Time Performance Averages

Though Route 7 sometimes reaches as high as the low to mid-90’s on some days, it’s much more variable - and thus less reliable - than other routes such as the 3. And since the 7 connects to other routes downtown and at the mall, this can create on-time issues that cascade through the rest of the system.

To remedy this, we will be removing a total of 19 stops on Route 7 that have been identified as having low ridership or as being close enough to another stop to warrant consolidation. This brings the average stop spacing of the route from 920 feet to 1,163 feet and allows the bus to reach higher speeds.

The map below shows the stops we will be removing in black, with the remaining stops in blue. Click here to open the map in a new tab/window.

There will also be some slight adjustments to the inbound time checks to ensure the bus does not waste any time getting downtown.

Route 902 - Southeast Side Night Service

The newly-opened Ash Street underpass will also allow the 902 to resume using Ash from 6th Street to MLK Drive inbound. No changes will be made to the timetable.

See a one-sheet flyer here.

Fall 2019 Schedule Changes

On June 3rd of 2019 we published a new schedule that made adjustments to the timetables of several routes in response to data collected from our new intelligent transportation systems. Using new GPS data, we identified several locations where specific routes were consistently running early or late and made tweaks to those schedules to more accurately reflect the actual times of buses on those routes, which in turn makes our schedules more reliable and decreases perceived wait time. The system’s on-time performance has increased significantly as a result.

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SMTD buses are also now outfitted with automated passenger counters that - when combined with GPS - can help us determine exactly when and where passengers are getting on or off the bus. This data informs decisions like where to put shelters (you need them when you’re waiting for the bus, not when you get off the bus) and where to increase or cut service. Several changes going live in the Fall 2019 schedule (going into effect on August 19th), are based on this information.

Route 1 - North 5th

After finding enough extra time in the route we opted to add a segment to Route 1 that travels to Walmart on North Dirksen. This is by far the most utilized bus stop in the entire SMTD system outside of those at the Transfer Center, and adding this segment to Route 1 has the following benefits:

• Less wait time at other time checks along the route

• Quick two-way travel from Walmart to the Sand Hill area and everything between

• Spreads passenger load and thus increases on-time performance for other routes that utilize that stop (Routes 2 & 3)

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The first two weekday trips on the June 2019 Route 1 schedule compared to those going into effect on August 19th, 2019.

Route 4 - W. Jefferson / W. Lawrence

A small segment was added to Route 4 outbound that detours from E. Cook onto 7th, looping back to E. Cook but stopping by SMTD’s home office along the way. Previously Route 11 was the only daytime route servicing this stop - and only inbound - but this new segment provides direct travel from the Transfer Center to SMTD’s offices.

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The new Route 4 pattern starting on August 19th, 2019.

Route 5 - N. Grand / Medical

Due to low ridership, travel to the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport was cut from Route 5. The time surplus from this cut will be used to add a segment to the inbound portion of Route 5 that goes from 11th to Carpenter, to MLK, to E. Cook, and then back to the Transfer Center.

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The new Route 5 pattern starting on August 19th, 2019.

Route 8 - South Grand / MacArthur

Further timetable adjustments were made to Route 8 to correct errors in the June 2019 schedule. Additionally, modifications to destination signs will make it easier for those in the Scarritt/Pasfield/Allen loop to determine whether the next bus is headed inbound (“to Transfer Center”) or outbound (“to North Street”).

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The first two weekday trips on the June 2019 Route 8 schedule compared to those going into effect on August 19th, 2019.

Route 903 - West Side Night Service

To avoid trains on the 3rd Street rail, Route 903 will no longer take 2nd Street to Washington inbound. Instead, buses will take 2nd Street to Capitol to 4th Street and then to Washington.

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Route 903 will begin using the path in red beginning August 19th, 2019 instead of taking 2nd Street directly to Washington. By utilizing the underpass on Capitol, buses can consistently avoid trains on the 3rd Street rail.

All Night Service Routes

All night service buses will start 15 minutes later to facilitate better interaction with the day service routes. The first trips out of the Transfer Center will leave at 6:00 PM while the last will depart at 10:00 PM.

Moving Forward Together

We understand that even minor changes to the system can have huge effects on the lives of our passengers and that a system in constant flux is not a bus system you can rely on. The adjustments made in June and those going into effect in August were designed with this in mind, optimizing the current system so that buses arrive when expected and get you to your destination as quickly and as safely as possible.

2019 State Fair

SMTD Service to the Illinois State Fair will be similar to recent years. However, there have been a couple of minor additions. Now that Rt. 1 N. 5th goes to Sand Hill, passengers can ride to a stop across the street from Gate 4 on Peoria Road now. Also, Urbanized Area Routes from Sherman and from Riverton/Spaulding pass through the intersection of Sangamon and Peoria Rd at the southeast corner of the fairgrounds on both their inbound and outbound trips in the mornings and evenings. See regular schedules on the Routes page, and see the State Fair Service Flier HERE.