June 6th Route Updates

There are a handful of changes and updates going into effect on Monday, June 6th.

Urbanized Area Routes

Due to extremely low ridership, the mid-day trips spanning 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM on routes 410 (Chatham), 430 (Sherman), and 440 (Riverton) are suspended until further notice.

Route 4 - West Lawrence

Route 4 previously used 7th Street to circle to Clay and then 9th to make a stop at the SMTD office before heading west, but will now use 8th Street instead.

Route 7 - West Washington

Map showing the new path of Route 7 (red) compared to the previous version (blue).

Instead of taking West White Oaks to Iles to get to Veterans Parkway inbound, Route 7 will continue north on West White Oaks to Green Briar before getting on Veterans. Two stops that had previously been cut (1304 and 1306) will be reinstalled on the east side of West White Oaks between Iles and Greenbriar, mirroring the Route 903 stops (1272 and 1273) on the west side of that road segment.

Route 15 - UIS / Seven Pines

The “teardrop” at the UIS PAC building is reopened but there isn’t enough room for multiple buses to be stopped there at the same time. The 11 will remain unchanged, but the 15 will start its route at the UIS book store instead.

Franklin Park (Routes 15 and 905)

Bus stops 1366 and 1367 on South 11th Street have been moved west to the light poles closest to the new sidewalk connecting Pickfair Road and 11th Street, making service more accessible for the Franklin Park area. Both stops are serviced by Route 15 and Route 905. This change has already gone into effect, but on June 6th the new locations will be reflected in the schedule data used for our real-time bus tracker and navigation apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc.

Route 801 - State Fair Shuttle

The State Fair Shuttle bus will offer 30-minute trips to and from the fair and downtown on weekday evenings from August 13th to August 20th. Check our State Fair 2022 page for more information on service to the fair.

Posted
AuthorSMTD
CategoriesRoute 905, State Fair, Route 4, Route 7, Route 15, Urbanized Area Routes

Fall 2020 Schedule Changes

Here’s everything you need to know about the SMTD Fall schedule beginning on August 24th.

School Routes

As of this post, District 186 schools are still set to resume some form of in-person classes in August. We will be running our supplemental service routes to/from those schools as long as that remains true.

Urbanized Area Routes

The urbanized area commute routes servicing Chatham, Rochester, Sherman, and Riverton/Spaulding will continue to be suspended for the Fall schedule. We are completely redesigning the UA routes to better serve their respective communities. You’ll be hearing more about these routes soon.

Route 15 - UIS / Prairie Crossing

The construction of an overpass at Iron Bridge Road and Woodside Road is slated to begin later this year and is expected to last at least 3 years. While this will be fantastic for the Interurban Trail and those travelling between Chatham and Springfield, the construction unfortunately makes the current inbound path of our Route 15 impossible.

Inbound segment of Route 15 (Meijer to UIS) with future overpass construction highlighted in red.

Unlike overpass construction in denser areas, we cannot detour around the affected intersection by simply changing a few blocks of the route. The outbound trip runs about 40 minutes, so turning around at Meijer and coming back the way we came would obviously take longer than 60 minutes.

Thanks to our automatic passenger counters we’re able to see how many passengers board or deboard at a given stop. For our analysis of Route 15 we grouped the stops into 10 distinct segments in order to determine which parts of the route were most useful to passengers.

Route 15 Segment Usage

From this data we were able to determine that the majority of passengers utilized Route 15 to get either to or from UIS, Junction Circle, and Chatham Hills. Given this information and the geometry left to us by the construction on Woodside Road, we have decided that the best course of action is to continue to service the majority of passengers as best we can. Route 15 will no longer service the Westchester, Prairie Crossing, Woodside, and Toronto Road segments of the route and will instead double back along the same path it takes from UIS to Chatham Hills. This will be inconvenient for some in the areas the route no longer services, but this will preserve service for most passengers who use Route 15 while making the route bi-directional and more useful overall.

Because this new pattern is so similar to what the 114 UIS Express bus would be doing in the evening, we are cancelling the 114 and adding Route 15 to Night Service. The last Route 15 trip will leave UIS at 9:55 PM and end at Chatham Hills at 10:22 PM.

Route 1 - North 5th / Sand Hill

The inbound time check at N. Grand & 5th has been moved back 5 minutes to make it easier for the bus to get back downtown on time. Instead of :19 and :49 of the hour, Route 1 buses will leave the N. Grand & 5th Street at :14 and :44 of the hour.

Route 10 - South 11th / Stevenson

The time check at the Secretary of State office has been moved back 2 minutes to help the bus get to Big Lots earlier. Instead of :23 and :53 of the hour, Route 10 buses will leave the Secretary of State stop at :21 and :51 of the hour.



Posted
AuthorSMTD
CategoriesRoute 15, Route 10, Route 1

Detours for 2017 Route 66 Mother Road Festival

Several streets downtown will be closed for the Route 66 Mother Road Festival being held this weekend so we will be relocating both the day and night transfer centers to 5th & Jackson. Here's a listing of the detour maps for each route:

Several routes will also have to make slightly different detours on Friday, September 22nd due to the parade, starting at 5:45 pm and lasting until the parade concludes. These can be seen on this map.

Posted
AuthorSMTD
CategoriesRoute 1, Route 10, Route 11, Route 13, Route 14, Route 15, Route 16, Route 19, Route 18, Route 2, Route 3, Route 4, Route 5, Route 6, Route 7, Route 8, Route 9, Route 901, Route 902, Route 903, Route 905, Transfer Center

Temporary Transfer Center for 5K on Saturday Morning

On Saturday, May13, 2017 at 6:00am, due to the 5K event downtown,
the transfer center will be located on the south side of Monroe (State Capitol side) between
2nd & College, returning to the regular transfer center at 5th & Capitol at 11:45am. Routes will
stage as follows:

  • Between College and Spring on Monroe:
    • 1 N. 5th
    • 2 N. 9th
    • 3 Grandview
    • 4 W. Jefferson
    • 5 N. Walnut
    • 7 W. Washington
    • 13 MacArthur/Westchester
    • 16 Bergen Park/Sand Hill
    • 18 Lawrence/Knox Knolls
  • Between Spring and 2nd Streets on Monroe:
    • 6 E. Cook
    • 8 1st/Highland
    • 9 M.L. King
    • 10 Southern View/Laketown
    • 11 UIS
    • 14 Wabash/Prairie Crossing
    • 15 So. 11th/UIS/LLC
Posted
AuthorSMTD
CategoriesTransfer Center, Route 1, Route 10, Route 11, Route 13, Route 14, Route 15, Route 16, Route 18, Route 19, Route 2, Route 3, Route 4, Route 5, Route 6, Route 7, Route 8, Route 9

Reminder: Saturday Schedule on Veterans Day

As usual, buses will be in service on Veterans Day (Friday, November 9th) but will be running Saturday schedules which means some routes will run every hour instead of every half-hour. We have included this holiday service in our GTFS data so that supported navigation apps will be able to give you the correct information.

Additionally, the daytime transfer center will be moved one block south to 5th & Jackson during the Veterans Day parade, from approximately 8:15 AM to 11:45 AM. After the parade concludes the transfer center will be moved back to its normal location at 5th & Capitol. 

Posted
AuthorSMTD
CategoriesRoute 1, Route 10, Route 11, Route 13, Route 14, Route 15, Route 16, Route 18, Route 19, Route 2, Route 3, Route 4, Route 5, Route 6, Route 7, Route 8, Route 9, Route 901, Route 902, Route 903, Route 904, Route 905, Transfer Center

July 1st Route Changes

Several route changes are going into effect on July 1st, 2015. 

Eliminated Routes

  • Night Service 11:45 PM (Last) Trip - 10:45 PM will be the last trip on all Night Service routes. Buses will return to the Transfer Center at 11:45 PM, but will take passengers no further.
  • Historic Sites - Passengers can ride Route 1 (North 5th) and Route 5 (North Walnut).
  • Route 19 - Will be replaced with a morning supplemental route that departs the downtown Transfer Center at 7:20 AM and an afternoon supplemental that departs the Sangamon County Regional Office of Education (SCROE) at 4:30 PM. The schedules are as follows: 
Transfer Center A SCROE SoS IDOT
7:20 AM 7:35 AM 7:40 AM 7:50 AM

SCROE SoS IDOT Transfer Center A
4:30 PM 4:35 PM 4:45 PM 5:00 PM

Other passengers can ride the Route 6 (East Cook), Route 9 (MLK), Route 11 (UIS), or Route 15 (S. 11th / UIS / LLCC) buses either on or within two to four blocks of the current Route 19.

Combined School Supplemental Trippers

  • Add SHS (East Cook) Tripper to SHS (MLK / South 15th)
  • Add Laketown (SEHS) Tripper to Southern View (SEHS)
  • Add SEHS (Laketown) Tripper to (SEHS) Southern View

State Holiday Hours

Buses will run in Saturday Service format on the following holidays:

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 18th)
  • Lincoln's Birthday (February 12)
  • Washington's Birthday / Presidents Day (3rd Monday of February)
  • Veterans Day (November 11)

These and other planned service changes can be found on our Service Calendar.

The changes were the first recommendations of what SMTD staff plans to make an annual occurrence, utilizing analyses of passenger counts on each route and implementation of performance standards to produce the most efficient service possible for Springfield. That is not to say that routes will be eliminated every year. 

"No one enjoys eliminating routes," said Managing Director Frank Squires, "but the reality is that, by reducing these clear inefficiencies, we are now in a much better position to provide better service and passenger amenities moving forward. By constantly evaluating our service, we can make any necessary annual adjustments to keep us providing the best service possible with the resources available to us without too often inconveniencing our passengers, and we can more easily add service in the future if we’re operating at maximum efficiency." 

Other changes made by SMTD will be publicized at dates closer to when they will affect passengers, such as State Fair service closer to the opening of the Illinois State Fair, school supplemental route changes closer to the first day of school later this summer and reduced service hours on certain state holidays. 

Posted
AuthorSMTD
CategoriesRoute 1, Route 10, Route 11, Route 14, Route 15, Route 18, Route 13, Route 2, Route 4, Route 5, Route 6, Route 9, Route 901, Route 902, Route 903, Route 904, Route 905, Southwind Park, State Fair, Historic Sites, Route 19