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DART presents proposed bus route changes

Sophia Schmidt, Delaware Public Media
A DART official presents proposed route changes to citizens

A new round of service changes is scheduled for December, and DART presented proposed adjustments to eight bus routes at a "community conversation" Tuesday in New Castle.

 

  

Delaware Transit Corporation planner David Dooley says the transit agency is moving toward more “combo, or “thru,”  routes—especially in Wilmington.

“Basically it’s trying to serve both ends of the city with one route instead of having the buses turn around in the downtown area, so that it lessens the perception or presence of buses in the downtown area,” he said.

Dooley says the goal of combo routes is to straighten routes to make trips faster—even if access to some lesser-used stops is cut off.

“If your travel time in a car from this point to this point is 20 minutes, it’s very difficult to attract bus riders to go on a bus route that meanders and it takes them 48 minutes,” he said.

One of these proposed changes would combine the west end of Route 9 with Route 35. Dooley says the combo route would no longer service Broome St. and Lancaster Ave. in Wilmington.

Credit Sophia Schmidt, Delaware Public Media
DTC planner David Dooley presents to a small crowd at the Route 9 Library

Jakim Mohammed, one of the few citizens that attended the presentation, offered feedback about other routes.  

“From Tri-State Mall all the way down to Walmart, to the Wilton area, that has to be a lean trip as much as possible. The 13 and the 14 are very critical for this area. I like some of the changes to the 14.”

Mohammed and others brought up the issue of trash and litter at bus shelters.

D. Marque Hall of the Coalition to Keep Bus Service on Rodney Square requested more benches at stops.

The Coalition’s John Flaherty suggested better transit access from the city of Wilmington to cultural destinations like Winterthur or Longwood.

DART anticipates its new Wilmington Transit Hub will be open in December 2019.

 

Sophia Schmidt is a Delaware native. She comes to Delaware Public Media from NPR’s Weekend Edition in Washington, DC, where she produced arts, politics, science and culture interviews. She previously wrote about education and environment for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA. She graduated from Williams College, where she studied environmental policy and biology, and covered environmental events and local renewable energy for the college paper.
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