Bus Routes in Township To Be Renamed

The LANTA bus routes in South Whitehall are being renamed.

As part of  its "Moving LANTA Forward" development plan, LANTA will no longer use letters to designate route names in the township. Instead, they will have numbers, said LANTA Planning Director Owen O’Neil.

Commuters can also expect new bus stop signs at many of the stops in the township.

“We plan to begin the process of installing new signs in late August,” O’Neil said. “We will go route by route, so we are not sure as to when the first signs may start to appear in South Whitehall. Until then, riders can continue to look for our current signs to locate bus stops.”

The bus stops will contain special information, such as phone numbers for commuters to call in advance for bus scheduling.

LANTA also will begin a five-year process of installing up to 200 bus stop shelters throughout the Lehigh Valley. O’Neil said that South Whitehall will have shelters located in various sites, but the specific locations have not yet been confirmed.

The changes are part of "Moving LANTA Forward," which aims to meet the changing and expanding public transportation needs of the Lehigh Valley. In western Salisbury Township, for example, LANTA will be to better serve commuters.

According to blog information, LANTA will be streamlining routes, creating new direct connections for prominent routes and improving reliability with "tight" running times.

The overall plan is expected to be completed by Aug. 29.

The route name changes in South Whitehall will be as follows:

-- Route A will become Route 107.

-- Route H will become Route 102.

-- Route J will become Route 209.

-- Route W will become Route 218.

-- Route 2 will become Route 213.

-- Route 3 will become Route 322

The name changes were the result of gradual route expansions.

O'Neil said the South Whitehall system relied on letters for 25 years. However, as the system grew larger over time, the use of letter names eventually ran out.

Therefore, all routes will be replaced with three-digit numbers that indicate levels of service. For example, the 100 level routes will act as core routes providing services Monday through Sunday all day and into the evening; the 200s will provide service along key urban corridors Monday through Saturday during day hours only; and the 300s will service more suburban corridors in the region during day hours Monday through Friday.

Further information on streamlined routes and the new route classification system can be found on the LANTA website.