New CityLink routes around the Peoria area will be adopted beginning March 6.
It's part of a long-planned transition aimed at cutting down wait times and increasing regular service on some of the most frequently used routes. But it also means some riders will have to learn a new schedule, as some routes are consolidated or eliminated.
"This is a cost neutral plan. So we've consolidated routes, so that we could save some of our buses to put them out there more frequently," said general manager Doug Roelfs.
The Route 6 Sheridan route will be replaced with Route 4, which extends to the Schnucks on Knoxville. The Route 16 Northwest Express will be eliminated and replaced by routes 3 and 14.
Route 9 running to EastSide Centre in East Peoria will be eliminated due to low ridership.
Roelfs said some routes which now take 75 minutes to complete a loop will now take 60 under the new map. At peak service times, some 30-minute routes will now run closer to 20 minutes.
"We're gonna see more routes, faster trips. We're gonna see a little longer opening time on the weekends. So we're gonna see a lot of things that we we've needed to change for a while," said Roelfs. "So I think everybody will be happy with some of the changes. And if they're not, we're going to be flexible and make changes to meet the needs that we see arise."
Service will be expanded on the weekends, but rolled back a bit at nighttime, Roelfs said.
"We found that on all the routes it wasn't necessary to run to midnight, 12:30. (We) just didn't have the ridership. So we could take what we cut from one end and add it to another to make it a little better for everybody," he said.
More information about the route changes can be found on the CityLink on the Move page.
