Bus route changes proposed for JeffTran

Newest South Route could be eliminated

Due to low ridership, changes have been proposed in Jefferson City's transit service. One option is the elimination of the south route, leaving the Fairgrounds Road stops serviced by the Capital Mall route. Photo by Julie Smith.

By Madeleine Leroux

Sunday, March 4, 2012

After less than two months, Jefferson City’s newest bus route could be eliminated under new proposed route changes. The city will hold an open house on proposed changes from 10 a.m.-noon March 13 at City Hall. A public hearing will be held during the April 2 City Council meeting.

The city began its South route buses Jan. 3. When it was being proposed, the route was expected to serve more than 2,400 people and 962 housing units. But now the route could be eliminated because of low ridership, though Thomas Jefferson Middle School would be served by the Capital Mall route under the proposed changes.

Read additional details in our newspaper or e-Edition. Newspaper subscribers: Click on an e-Edition article and log in using your current account information at no extra charge. For e-edition help, e-mail circ@newstribune.com. Click here to purchase the full version of archived articles.

More like this story

jcjc72 1 year, 2 months ago

Two whole months, with no promotion that the route was even running, I can’t imagine why it would be failing. Imagine that a city that claims to be trying catering to young professionals, now wants to drop the one thing that young professionals really want, better public transportation, because it is the modern green way to commute. Public transportation is something people expect to have just like police and fire protection, it is not meant to make a profit, but to be a service to the community and its visitors. How about a little promotion that the bus was actually running, maybe put up some bus stop signs, this route was doomed from January 3rd when it started because the city did not promote it, they did not put up bus stops along the route, because they knew it would not last. Ridership on all of JeffTran is low, so why not drop the whole thing? Jefferson City wants to annex all of these homes and business, but not provide them with adequate public services.
Major cities that cater to young professionals have busses and trains that run past 5:00pm and they do not make a profit, it is a public service. Only two public transit systems in the world make a profit from fares alone and they are in Tokyo (Tokyo-Yokohama) and Osaka (Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto). NYC and Chicago among others use grant monies and other government funding to at best break even. Sell advertising on the bus like other cities do to cover cost and keep it going. In fact you should be adding more routes and running the busses later in the evening.