COMING SOON TO A BUS STOP NEAR YOU—EXTENDED HOURS, AN ONLINE TRIP PLANNER AND NEW TRANSIT BOXES

Say you’re in West Des Moines and you want to take the bus to your favorite restaurant for a quick bite—or to a movie theater. What bus routes would you take and when?

                A new trip planner from the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority will help you plan your route to that restaurant, with information on how far you have to walk to the nearest bus stop, what bus routes you have to take to your restaurant, transfers and more. There are still some bugs to work out of the software. However, once the planner is fully up and running, perhaps sometime early next year, you’ll be even be able to find out in real time where your bus is in regards to your bus stop. “I’m pleased to say it’s almost here,” noted Gunnar Olson, the public information officer of DART.  

                If you want to go to that restaurant in West Des Moines or elsewhere, you’ll have a greater choice of hours in which to do so beginning August 18. Many schedule changes were announced at the July 30 public meeting. Among the ones pertaining to West Des Moines:

·         The hours for weeknight service on route 52 which connects West Des Moines with the downtown area direct will be extended. On weeknights, the last bus to West Des Moines will leave the DART Central Station downtown at 8:45 p.m. and arrive at Jordan Creek Mall at 9:13 p.m.  The eastbound trip will leave Jordan Creek Mall at 9:14 p.m. and arrive downtown at 9:44 p.m.

·         On Saturdays, the first bus on route 52 will leave downtown at 6:45 a.m. and arrive at Jordan Creek Mall at 7:16 a.m. The first bus will leave Jordan Creek Mall at 7:27 a.m. and arrive downtown at 8:01 a.m. The last bus to Jordan Creek Mall will leave downtown at 8:45 p.m. and arrive at Jordan Creek Mall at 9:15 p.m., while the last bus from Jordan Creek Mall will leave Jordan Creek Mall at 9:15 p.m. and arrive downtown at 9:41 p.m.

·         The hours for Sunday service on route 52 will also be extended. The  last westbound bus will leave downtown at 5:45 p.m. and arrive at Jordan Creek at 6:17 p.m. The last eastbound bus will leave Jordan Creek at 5:20 p.m. and arrive downtown at 5:57 p.m.

·         The hours for weekday service on route 72, a route which connects Valley Junction, Valley West Mall and Jordan Creek Town Center and provides for deviations to serve riders on either side of the route, have also been extended. The last bus to link Valley Junction and Jordan Creek Mall will now do so at 7:49 p.m. and arrive at Jordan Creek at 8:34 p.m. The last bus to link Jordan Creek Mall with Valley Junction will leave Jordan Creek at 8:00 p.m. and arrive at Valley Junction at 8:44 p.m.

·         Saturday and Sunday service on route 72 have also been extended. The last eastbound bus will leave Jordan Creek Mall for Valley Junction at 9:05 p.m.; the last westbound bus will leave Valley Junction for Jordan Creek at 7:50 p.m. On Sunday, the last eastbound run will leave Jordan Creek for Valley Junction will leave at 6:05 p.m., while the last westbound bus will leave Valley Junction for Jordan Creek at 4:48 p.m.

·         Weekday service for route 3, which connects Valley West Mall with downtown via Westown Parkway and University Avenue will now end at 11:12 p.m. with the last eastbound bus leaving Valley West Mall for downtown. Saturday service will end at 9:45 p.m. with the last bus arriving at Valley West Mall; the last eastbound bus will leave Valley West Mall at 9:08 p.m. Sunday service will end at 6:22 p.m. with the last bus arriving at Valley West Mall; the last eastbound will leave Valley West Mall at 6:08 p.m.

One of the other topics was the implementation of new fare boxes on the buses in DART’s fleet. The current ones are outdated, Olson noted. The agency has received a $3 million grant for replacing the boxes and was seeking riders such as college students, seniors, young people, disabled and others who use the DART system for a focus group to advise the transit authority on the replacement of the fare boxes. One option would be for the new boxes to use “smart cards” which are worth a certain amount of money. Every time they are used, the amount of the fare is deducted from the cards.

Nothing has been set yet. Plans for this year include obtaining feedback from members of the focus group and holding public meetings. Next year a recommendation concerning the fare boxes would be made to the DART commission. If the recommendation is approved, the policy might be approved and the boxes would be approved in 2015.

The installation of the fare boxes would not affect bus fares. “There are no plans in the raising the prices of fares,” he said.

To learn about the proposed fare boxes, along with the route changes and the online trip planner, several public meetings will be held this week around the Des Moines area. Among them:

·         Wednesday, July 31, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. DART Central Station, Multimodal room, 620 Cherry Street, Des Moines.

·         Wednesday, July 31, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. SouthRidge Mall, Suite 75 (in the plaza near Target), 1111 East Army Post Road, Des Moines.

·         Thursday, August 1, noon to 1:30 p.m., DART Central Station, multimodal room, 620 Cherry Street, Des Moines.

·         Thursday, August 1, 4 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. East Side Library, 2559 Hubbell Avenue, Des Moines.

        Meetings will feature a chance to try out DART’s soon-to-launch online trip planner and provide feedback to staff. They will have a question-and-answer session with DART staff members.        

          Language, visual and transportation services are available for meetings upon request. Requests should be made by calling DART at 515-283-8100 with as much advance notice as possible. For more information, call DART at 515-283-8100 or e-mail dart@ridedart.com.