Charlottesville Area Transit plans to roll out service changes to some of its routes this fall.
The changes, which go into effect Saturday, Nov. 9, are designed to make bus service more frequent and more reliable. Fares will continue to be free, said Alex Pasqualone, CAT’s marketing coordinator.
The adjustments come after years of complaints from riders and drivers that CAT service is too infrequent and unreliable.
All CAT routes, including the Free Trolley, will have new schedules come Nov. 9. But a few will see some major changes.
- Route 4 (Cherry Avenue and Harris Road) will have more frequent service, with weekday buses running every 30 minutes from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and every hour from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will run hourly on Saturdays. This should help Route 4 be on time, according to a news release posted to the City of Charlottesville’s website. Currently, it is scheduled to run approximately every 20 minutes at peak hours, such as during morning and evening rush hours, and every hour or so during non-peak times, such as nighttime — but that’s not always the case. Route 4 has the second-lowest on-time performance in the entire CAT system, the news release stated.
- Route 6 (Ridge Street and Prospect Avenue) will have more frequent service, with weekday buses running every 30 minutes from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and hourly after that. Currently, Route 6 runs every hour.
- Route 11 (Locust Avenue and Rio Road) will now include a stop at the Center at Belvedere off East Rio Road, on the outbound direction only.
All connection times at the Downtown Transit Center on Water Street will be staggered to avoid recurring bus backups at that single stop.
Additionally, CAT has added more “time points” across several routes. This means that a bus will not leave one stop for the next in its route until it is time to leave. For instance, if a bus arrives at a stop six minutes early, it will idle at that stop for those six minutes, until it is scheduled to leave for the next stop.
These service changes are part of CAT’s strategic plan, finalized last June, to improve bus service over the next 10 years.
More reliable bus service is good news for several CAT riders who spoke with Charlottesville Tomorrow this week.
Andy, a CAT rider who declined to share his last name for privacy reasons, was unaware of the proposed schedule changes. He was glad to hear that the bus service could soon be more reliable.
Just the other morning, Andy said he was waiting for a Trolley or a Route 7 bus to ride to his job at the University of Virginia. But the bus never showed up, and he was faced with a familiar predicament: Wait for the next bus, or walk. Either way, he risked being late for work.
“It would be nice to be able to rely on it,” Andy said. “It would make my work and home life much more routine.”
Fitz, another rider who also did not want to give his full name, takes the 9 and 8 bus routes. So far, they’ve been “running just fine” lately,” he said. “They’re already good.”
Fitz, like many of the riders who spoke with Charlottesville Tomorrow, is more worried about the free fares than any schedule changes. “As long as it’s free, I’m good,” he said.
Another rider, who asked to be identified as “Jefferson, and that’s all,” said that adding more buses to the 4 and 6 routes “is a good idea, because they don’t run enough.” But he is concerned that the schedule changes will be confusing for people who have their schedules memorized.
“What if they change it and it’s more complicated?” Jefferson asked. “We don’t have time for that. Life is complicated enough.”
Yet another rider, Ms. Jackson, was pleased to learn that CAT plans to improve its service. But, because she gets off work at 1 a.m., she is disappointed that the changes don’t include buses that run at that time.
Adding increased frequencies on two different routes meant hiring enough staff to drive them, said CAT’s Pasqualone. A bus driver shortage has been the main cause of CAT’s poor service in recent years.
“We’re making excellent progress on hiring,” Pasqualone said.
After a couple of years of negotiations, CAT bus drivers received a pay bump earlier this year, according to a February report by NBC 29 News. Higher pay was one of the benefits that drivers said could help with the shortage.
“We currently have only a few driver positions open and are optimistic about filling them all by year’s end,” said Pasqualone. With this staffing level, we can fully support the services we’ve committed to and position ourselves for future service improvements.
“That said, to achieve our long-term service goals, we will eventually need the city to grant additional driver positions,” he added.
It is unclear what this schedule change will mean for the drivers themselves. Charlottesville Tomorrow was unable to speak with a CAT driver. CAT drivers are represented by the local 1220 chapter of the Amalgamated Transit Union, and the chapter president Maurice Carter said he did not want his drivers speaking with the media, lest they face consequences for being critical of the changes.
Take Action
You can find updated schedule information in the Charlottesville Area Transit mobile app on Nov. 9. Bus drivers will also be able to answer questions about the schedule and route changes. Riders can also call 434-970-3649, option 0, to hear the estimated times of arrival for their stop. For now, riders can see the specifics in the fixed route schedule book.
For riders who do not have smartphones, CAT is working to provide new print rider guides, as well as new signage for all of its bus stops and shelters. The new materials will be available in English and Spanish, but CAT hopes to add additional languages in the future, said Pasqualone.
