In days, here comes one of Metro Transit's biggest changes ever

Madison Metro Transit ride guides Andrew Lail, left, and Nolan Hegge, right, offer route advice to rider Pervis Redmond as the system prepares for a sweeping redesign that will start Sunday.

Metro Transit bus rider Sergio Nieves and ride guide Nolan Hegge talk about the system's upcoming change to their routes at the North Side Transfer Station. The North, East and West transfer stations will be closing Sunday. The South Transfer Station will function as a bus stop.

The biggest change to Madison's bus system in a quarter century, a true transformation, is just days away.

For years, the Metro Transit system has delivered a lot of coverage, busing into and out of neighborhoods around the city. The tradeoff, though, has been slower service, longer rides and transfers, especially for those with low incomes and minorities.

The new system that takes effect Sunday, however, focuses more on main arteries. It’ll mean more frequent service and fewer transfers for riders. But the tradeoff for this type of system is longer walks to bus stops for some people.

"Our service is going to change instantly overnight," Metro spokesperson Mick Rusch said, adding that the biggest initial concern is making sure everyone is aware of the change and the new way of doing things. "To help with that, we have and will have staff out at various locations throughout the service area to answer questions, plan trips, and help people get where they need to."

On Sunday, when ridership is smaller, Metro will start a "slow rollout" of the sweeping network redesign that promises more frequent and consistent service, better links to outlying areas, removal of buses from lower State Street, immediate closure of three of four transfer points and all 2,000 stops seeing some sort of change.

The next day, the redesign will more fully impact riders taking the bus to jobs, appointments, and other places as the work week starts.

But some fear what will happen.

"People are apprehensive and resigned," said Susan De Vos, president of Madison Area Bus Advocates, which has been critical of the redesign and the process. "They and I anticipate enormous suffering. Despite claims to the contrary, there were serious flaws in the equity analysis. Other complaints deal with such issues as community engagement."

President Joe Biden lauded Madison Friday during the conference of U.S. Mayors over its fleet of electric buses. The city has a fleet of 46 electric buses and its planned Bus Rapid Transit routes will be solely serviced with electric. Madison Metro's gas-powered buses consume 5,000 gallons of diesel a year and costs approximately $125,000 more over its lifetime in maintenance costs compared to electric buses.

Metro Transit's ridership suffered during the pandemic but is rebounding.

Ridership had already been declining, with a total 15.5 million riders in 2014 gradually dropping to 13 million in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, ridership plummeted to 4.7 million and ticked up to 5.5 million the next year. A preliminary count shows ridership increasing to 8.3 million in 2022, with forecasts of 10.3 million this year and 13.2 million in 2026, which would top the total in the year before the pandemic.

The system had a daily average ridership of about 38,000 weekdays before the pandemic and roughly 28,700 now.

"The transit network before the pandemic had challenges and equity issues," City Transportation Director Tom Lynch said. "People of color and low-income individuals had greater transfer rates and longer bus rides. Bus routes were slow and infrequent. The transfer point system could be unreliable where people would miss their connecting bus, adding 30 minutes to their trip. The system focused on Downtown commuters, with less service for midday, evening, and weekend travelers.

"The network redesign solves many of these problems and gives us a framework where we can grow by extending lines and making routes more frequent," he said.

The challenge has been working through many design issues across the city, city transportation planner Mike Cechvala said. "It's difficult to solve one problem without creating another, but we feel we’ve put together a strong network that will work well," he said. "With more funding, it would be easier, but that will always be the case."

Among the biggest changes, routes are shifting from numbers to letters.

"Routes A and B will be the core of the new system," Cechvala said. "People can look forward to 15-minute service on Mineral Point Road, East Washington Avenue, Northport, and Park Street, where they have never had that level of service before. Most of the time, there will be a next bus coming soon and they won't need to know the schedule as much as they do today."

Route A, which runs roughly from East Towne to West Towne, starts Sunday as a regular bus route with 15-minute service hitting all stops and using normal vehicles. In mid to late 2024, it will become the initial BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) route with new articulated, electric buses and streamlined service only serving BRT stations. Route B, which runs from the North Side to Downtown, down Park Street and into Fitchburg and back with 15-minute service, is the future north-south BRT route.

Amid concerns about gaps in service, the City Council approved 17 amendments to Metro's draft plan. The biggest changes add Route L that connects the North Side to the Owl Creek Neighborhood on the Southeast Side and Route O, a loop that touches Fish Hatchery Road, Goodman Pool, Badger Road, Rusk Avenue and Alliant Energy Center on the South Side, Cechvala said.

There will be additional service in Sun Prairie, and service in Fitchburg and Middleton will be modified.

Meanwhile, the north, east and west transfer points will close on Sunday.

Right away, "more people will be able to reach more destinations in a reasonable amount of time," Lynch said. "The system is simpler and easier to use. Riders won't have to memorize routes that only run at certain times. Instead, many of the routes will be frequent, running every 15 minutes or so. Additionally, service on evenings and weekends will be much better, helping those with non-traditional work hours get to where they need to be."

But there are tradeoffs.

"Some people will need to walk farther to catch the bus," Lynch said. "Some people are accustomed to a route with limited service on their neighborhood street that won't be there anymore. However, our studies have shown that the people who receive the most benefits from the new system, are the people who rely on it the most — people with low incomes."

Jonathan Mertzig, another Madison Area Bus Advocates member, said he was shocked at how bad most of the new trip times are for his neighborhood on the West Side, perhaps because he lives near the West Transfer Point, which is closing. "It seems like the new network might worsen a lot of trips," he said. "I hope I’m just an outlier and the results are better on average for most folks."

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the redesign "will provide the Madison Metro Transit service that this city needs and deserves."

"We haven't updated Metro routes in more than 20 years and in that time a lot has changed about our city," she said. "Job centers are spread out across Madison, and housing is being built across our community."

"Based on extensive community input, the new system expands access for neighborhoods that are low income and with higher populations of people of color, reducing transit times and the need to transfer."

UW-Madison students may see small differences in service, but because the campus already gets high levels of service the impacts will be limited, officials said. For the Madison schools, there will be limited changes in Metro's supplemental school service to remove duplications and cover gaps, but the rollout was scheduled for the summer so adjustments can be made before the fall semester. Middle school students will be switching to yellow bus service, they said.

Driver training, concerns

Metro drivers have been training for the new routes for several months, and all will go through a training course and be given the opportunity for on-the-road familiarization with the new routes, Metro General manager Justin Stuehrenberg said.

"We’ve heard many positive things from drivers that have completed training," Stuehrenberg said. "The routes are simpler and provide more time to recover schedules and use restrooms at the end of the lines than the current system. Some drivers continue to express some concern, but we’ve seen a shift for the better since the training classes started."

The city, meanwhile, is making capital improvements.

"There are a handful of new concrete boarding platforms needed at new key stops," Cechvala said. "Most of those are in place and ready to go. The new signs are being implemented now and are expected to be done before the change. There are also a handful of traffic signal and other roadway and parking changes to make turns. Most of those are underway or completed."

There aren't any technical upgrades that are coming with the redesign, Rusch said, adding, "We are looking at implementing new fare technology next year, but that will coincide more with the launch of our Bus Rapid Transit system."

There is no cost to the change because it will be the same number of buses most of the time running the routes, Cechvala said. "There were some one-time costs such as the capital improvements ... and some planning and implementation costs, but they are low compared to our normal business," he said.

The City Council approved the controversial changes on a 14-6 vote at 12:42 a.m. on June 8 after 80 public meetings — many online — and 17 amendments taking into account comments from the public.

Metro is now engaged in informing riders, officials said.

"Our paid media outreach campaign is ongoing," Rusch said. "We have Metro staff that are attending events and providing training sessions. Ride guide staff are also now out on the street and riding buses to let passengers know that this change is coming and offer to help plan their trips.

"We will have people out there in the early days of the new service to direct people to new stops," Rusch said. "The South Transfer Point is still located in a connection location, so to start, buses will continue to pull in there. We haven't determined when this will happen yet, but all transfer points will be dismantled. When this happens at the south, regular Metro shelters will be placed there."

More than 50 ride guides wearing neon yellow vests have fanned out around the city to help riders find the closest available stop, identify which new route to take, and be available to help people plan their new routes using maps or apps.

Meanwhile, Metro has visited a number of agencies/organizations that serve those with disabilities, Rusch said. "We’ve been providing information to both caregivers and riders to provide assistance in learning the new system," he said.

"I’m looking forward to taking the new B route to work next week," Rhodes-Conway said. "I expect that many regular riders will adjust easily to the new system, but I hope casual riders will seek out our ride guides and get help planning their trips — not just to work, but also to all the fun summer events Madison has to offer."

Others aren't so sure.

"Metro just hasn't really met the level of communications volume and quality I’d expect for such a dramatic change and has bungled many key elements of managing this change," Mertzig said. "It seems like we’re trying to pull off something very ambitious on a shoestring budget, and not really devoting the level of resources needed to make this network — both its rollout and its operation — a success for transit riders."

No one expects the rollout to be flawless.

"We are expecting to see passengers learning the new system and drivers becoming familiar with driving the routes," Rusch said. "We will be asking for feedback from riders, drivers and supervisors to tell us how the new system is operating so that we can make any needed adjustments."

For students, "We will implement the service over and above the base routes in August," Cechvala said. "That will give us some time to assess if and where additional capacity is needed. We will continue to adjust as necessary."

Metro will likely make a few small schedule adjustments in August and again in December as it gets better data, Stuehrenberg said. "More significant changes to routing, if needed, would wait until 2024," he said. "We typically do service updates in August of each year.

"We expect the number of people using our system to increase as compared to now, and eventually climb back to pre-COVID levels," he said. "However, note that with fewer forced transfers we may see the number of people and fares go up, but the number of individual boardings go down because one person making a transfer makes two boardings."

A rider survey will be done some time in the next year, officials said.

"Over the next two years we are making significant improvements to Metro with the network redesign and the east-west BRT, and we will continue to improve the system every year going forward, through the north-south BRT project and annual improvements to routes," Rhodes-Conway said.

See all that made the first Madison Night Market of 2023 come alive.

Among all the changes, the Metro Transit redesign will also reduce the number of miles the city plows every time it snows and applies salt as weather allows, the city Streets Division says.

Under policy adopted in the mid-1970s, the service is reserved for the major thoroughfares, the roads used by Metro Transit, those around schools, hospitals, police and fire facilities, and other important connector streets. Salt routes make up just under 40% of all of the traffic lanes within the city.

If Metro is no longer using a street for a bus, then it's likely the street would no longer meet the standards to be a salt route.

A review removed roughly 85 traffic lane miles from all of the salt routes for this upcoming winter and kept about 740 traffic lane miles, meaning a 10% change from last winter and spreading around 500 fewer tons of salt on the city's roads during a normal winter.

Public streets not designated a salt route are plowed when at least 3 inches of snow accumulates on them and the storm is at or near its end. They typically will have a hard pack of snow and ice on them after plowing. Sand is applied later where needed to improve traction.

Reducing salt usage is a goal of the city and the Streets Division in its ongoing efforts to protect the environment and the traveling public.

To learn about where to catch a bus and where it will go:

See www.mymetrobus.com or call 266-4466.

Look for "Ride Guides" in yellow vests out on the street.

Riders can also plan a trip using Google Maps, but must enter a date on or after Sunday.

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Dean Mosiman covers Madison city government for the Wisconsin State Journal.

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