Concord Area Transit Tweaks Bus Service, Schedule

The city’s bus service is making some minor changes to its routes, in order to cover more areas of Concord with fewer buses and improve its schedule and service.

The changes to Concord Area Transit will go into effect in early February, according Mobility Manager Terri Paige, of the Community Action Program, Belknap-Merrimack Counties, Inc., the nonprofit that runs the transportation service.

Currently, the nonprofit runs three fixed routes in Concord: Penacook, Heights, and Crosstown, along with other para-transit services for area seniors and other small buses.

The Penacook route – the blue line – starts at the Briar Pipe Apartments and heads into the Statehouse via North State Street and then heads up to Concord Hospital via Pleasant Street and then back to Penacook. The Heights route – the green line – runs from Walmart along Loudon Road to the Statehouse and then turns around at St. John Church and then heads back to Eagle Square, over to the post office, up to Havenwood, over to the Steeplegate Mall and then back to Walmart. The Crosstown route – the yellow line – runs from Industrial Park over to Loudon Road, Fort Eddy Road, NHTI, Horseshoe Pond, and then the Statehouse. It then heads to Concord District Court on Clinton Street, along South Fruit Street, over to Concord Hospital, and then back down to Eagle Square, retracing its route back over to Industrial Drive.

At a meeting last week, Paige and others, including Ward 2 City Councilor Jennifer Kretovic, held a public hearing at Red River Theatres to discuss the changes that the organization would be implementing.

Paige said the changes were being made in order to ensure that as many areas of the city could be covered as possible, in the wake of the line losing funding for the trolley route that ran on Main Street, NHTI, and other areas of the city.

In November 2011, the service made some changes to the schedule and routes in order to try and cover everything. But the changes added longer route times, some wait times, and the shortening of the route schedule.

While surveying riders and requesting feedback via comment cards, meetings, and interviews with riders, Paige realized that riders liked the previous schedule before the changes were made to cover for the end of the trolley service. Riders also requested earlier and later connections to Penacook, so workers wouldn’t miss the first and last buses. Coordination is expected to improve between the three fixed bus routes that overlap at various times along Main Street.

 “This schedule actually allows us to go back to hour run times,” Paige said. “The connections will all sync up.”

The major change to the routes was the elimination of the Crosstown bus route heading to Concord Hospital. Passengers who need to get to Concord Hospital who take the Crosstown line will need to link up with the Penacook route one of the 11 times during the day it stops on Main Street.

The Crosstown route will also not stop at the Concord Coach bus station on the outbound route. Paige said there wasn’t the ridership and it saved about 15 minutes of time. Outbound riders will also not be able to access the post office.

But that still wasn’t enough to save time so more shaving had to be done.

“There weren’t many options to make that happen,” she said, adding that removing the Crosstown line heading to Concord Hospital made it all fit, time-wise.

A few people spoke about the changes at the meeting.

One rider named Ralph said he liked the improved schedule adding that he had reservations about the previous schedule. As a bus rider about five days a week, he said the changes were reasonable and seemed to improve the linkages between the buses.

Kevin, another rider, worried about the final construction phase of Route 3, as well as Downtown Concord, noting that last summer, during the construction season, there was limited to no overlapping linkage from the Penacook bus.

Kretovic noted that the volume of traffic is going to be smaller because it will be in the village. But, she added, there wasn’t much anyone could do about it during construction season.

“This was the toughest year, for sure,” she said. “We had the curbs ... riders couldn't see the buses ... I think there were so many obstacles.”

Kevin also raised the issue of getting a bus down to The Friendly Kitchen and noted that all of the sidewalks that lead to the kitchen from North Main Street had not been plowed and no one could walk on them.

Preston, another rider, simply called the bus service “a blessing.”

New schedules of the bus line routes and service times will be available on Jan. 24. The route changes are scheduled to be implemented on Feb. 4.