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After more than two years, the wheels on the push to
bring evening bus service to Springfield are finally going ’round and
’round. Urbitran, a New York-based engineering firm hired by
the Illinois Department of Transportation, concludes in a preliminary needs
assessment that offering night service to Springfield bus riders is
feasible — and also necessary. The 41-page study, paid for with a portion of a
$375,000 federal grant, also finds that the most likely beneficiaries would
be low-income individuals, people with disabilities, senior citizens,
third-shift workers, and students. However, there is no timetable for when the project
would begin — and additional funding would still be needed. Still, Jane Ford, a spokeswoman for the Central
Illinois Organizing Project, the group that has led the campaign, calls
these initial findings a “giant step forward.”
To prepare Phase I of the report, Urbitran collected
questionnaires from approximately 465 Springfield residents, Ford says. The firm also conducted drop-in sessions at transfer
stations and met with officials from the Lawrence Education Center, Lincoln
Land Community College, and the University of Illinois at Springfield. More than 35 other stakeholders, including the
Springfield Police Department, social- service agencies, the
Springfield Housing Authority, and bus drivers who could be responsible for
the additional routes, also offered input. Fifty years have gone by since local buses carried
passengers after dark. Currently service at ends at 6 p.m. Renewed interest in night service emerged in 2004,
when CIOP leaned on the local transit authority to explore the possibility
of restoring evening routes. The next year CIOP, a regional faith-based
community organization with affiliates in several central-Illinois cities,
found that Springfield lagged behind similarly sized capital cities already
offering night service. Another 175 Springfield residents attended a public
hearing in November to discuss the issue. Then, last month, at a meeting of
the advisory committee examining the issue, which consists of
representatives from CIOP, the Springfield Mass Transit District, IDOT, the
Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, and the Springfield-Sangamon
County Regional Planning Commission, reviewed the needs assessment and
began looking toward Phase II of the study. Ford says the final report on Phase I is expected to
be completed by the end of March. She says the next step is to establish
alternatives, or parameters for night bus service. Phase III will address
the issue of financing. With the federal funds that have been received,
Ford estimates, SMTD can afford to offer three or four evening routes. Richard Fix, SMTD’s executive director, says
the grant money can be used to cover operationing expenses, such as paying
drivers, but not to purchase equipment or fuel. Although plans for a $14 million to $18 million
transportation hub are in the works, that’s still a few years away,
and any money received for its construction would be earmarked for capital
expenditures, Fix says. The city of Springfield doesn’t have the
financial resources to contribute anything, says City Hall communications
director Ernie Slottag. Nor is it likely that the state, which provides the
SMTD with 54 percent of its funding, will be much help. During next
week’s transportation lobby day at the statehouse, transit districts
from around Illinois will plead their cases to lawmakers. Fix says he plans to work on securing additional
funds to cover day-to-day expenses but won’t seek extra funds for the
evening routes: “We can ask for all what we want, but
we’re only going to get what they’ve got.”
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2007.
