Sangamon Mass Transit District

Headquarters 928 South Ninth Street
Locale Springfield, Illinois
Service type bus service, paratransit
Routes 16 regular day routes
5 night routes
12 supplemental routes
Fleet 57 buses
22 paratransit vans
Fuel type Compressed natural gas
Diesel
Operator Self
Website

smtd.org

2008 Low Floor 35ft Gillig bus 0802 on Route 6 E. Cook/Ash/White Oaks Mall
Low Floor Gillig 35ft Bus decorated with Christmas lights for Toys for Tots
Christmas Bus decorated for Toys For Tots
Low Floor Gillig 2011 series. 35 ft. On Route 1 N. Fifth before turning into Route 18 Lawrence/Knox Knolls
First NEW 2013 CNG New Flyer. 1 of 7, all 35ft
First NEW 2017 Diesel New Flyer. 1 of 2, all 35ft

The Sangamon Mass Transit District (SMTD) is the mass transit district serving Springfield, Illinois, the state capital.

Routes

The Sangamon Mass Transit District operates 16 regular routes during the day, 5 routes at night, and 12 supplemental routes, most of which serve schools.[1] On weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., most routes run every half-hour, with buses leaving downtown at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. Some routes run only once an hour during part of the day. On weeknights and Saturdays between 6:45 and 10:45 p.m., buses leave downtown once an hour, at 45 minutes past the hour. The last buses of the night return to downtown at 11:45 p.m. Supplemental routes run only once per day. No service is offered on Sundays, nor on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Buses run the Saturday schedule on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's Birthday/President's Day, and Veterans Day. [2]

Daytime routes

  • Route 1 North Fifth
  • Route 2 North Ninth
  • Route 3 Grandview
  • Route 4 West Jefferson
  • Route 5 North Walnut
  • Route 6 East Cook / Ash / White Oaks Mall
  • Route 7 West Washington / White Oaks Mall
  • Route 8 1st & Highland
  • Route 9 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
  • Route 10 Southern View / Laketown
  • Route 11 UIS / Sangamon County Public Health Department
  • Route 13 MacArthur / Westchester / Jerome
  • Route 14 Wabash / Prairie Crossing / Seven Pines/ Gaines Mill
  • Route 15 South Eleventh / UIS / LLCC
  • Route 16 Bergen Park / Sand Hill
  • Route 18 Lawrence / Knox Knolls

Evening Routes

  • Route 901 North Side
  • Route 902 Southeast Side
  • Route 903 West Side via West Washington
  • Route 905 UIS / LLCC
  • UIS Express To Chatham Hills

Supplemental routes

Cash fare, transfers and passes

Regular bus fare is $1.25 for anyone age five or over. Up to two children under the age of four are permitted on the buses free of charge with an adult. More than two children under this age will cost an additional 60 cents. For senior citizens, disabled persons, or Medicare card holders, fare is 60 cents with proof of such status. Transfers between connecting buses are free and available upon request of the driver when fare is initially paid.[3]

Bus passes are available at area businesses including all Walgreens stores in the city, public, private, and parochial schools, and the SMTD home office at 928 S. 9th Street.

Three different kinds of passes are available, and are color-coded for easy identification.

  • Regular Discount Pass (Yellow) 20 Rides/$20.00
  • Senior Citizen Pass (Peach) 20 Rides/$12.00
  • Disabled Person Pass (Blue) 20 Rides/$12.00

Buses

The routes are covered with 53 buses (15 fueled with Compressed natural gas, 34 fueled with diesel) and 22 paratransit vans. As of July. 1, 2018, the buses are

Paratransit

The SMTD operates a paratransit service named Access Sangamon for disabled people who are unable to use the regular buses. Service is available at the same times that the regular buses are operating.[4]

Funding and employees

In 2017, the employee headcount was 143, of whom 116 were members of labor unions and 27 were administrative personnel. The annual budget was $7.2 million.

Only 9% of the SMTD's 2017 operating budget was met through fares paid by riders. An additional 1% was earned through other private-sector-style income streams, such as income from placards and billboards on the buses, and the remaining 90% consisted of federal, state, and local public-sector subsidies.[5]

Technology

SMTD's route information was integrated into Google Transit on May 12th, 2016. The district also freely provides their schedule data in the General Transit Feed Specification format for developers and hobbyists to incorporate in their own apps. Other apps using this data include Bing Maps, Here WeGo, Moovit, and Walk Score. Real-time data is not currently available. [6] [7]

Recent developments

Recently the district received a $650,000 grant to make all bus stops compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. As of 2012 all buses are equipped with bike racks.

In July 2015, the SMTD eliminated many routes, including the east-side Route 19, special Historic Sites and Southwind Park routes, a shuttle bus that served the Illinois State Fairgrounds during the fair, and several supplemental routes that served the Illinois Department of Revenue and some local schools. Night service was also reduced; the last trip of the night, which had begun at 11:45 p.m. from downtown, was discontinued. [8]

Saturday night service was added in August 2016, but it was discontinued in January 2017. [9][10]

On January 1, 2017, SMTD changed its operating name from Springfield Mass Transit District to Sangamon Mass Transit District. [11]

In 2017, the city broke ground for a new transfer center on the east edge of downtown.[12] The transfer center is expected to open in January 2019, at which time many of the bus routes will be redesigned or replaced.[13] These plans include a secondary transfer center on the city's southwest side, where the majority of the area's growth and new development has taken place over the last few decades. Limited-service rush hour routes between downtown and the suburbs of Sherman, Riverton, Rochester, and Chatham have also been proposed. Longer term proposals call for the new transfer center to become Springfield's new multimodal transport hub,[14] with stops by trains and intercity buses.[15] Improvements are currently under construction to a railroad adjacent to the new transfer center. If the rail consolidation proposal is implemented, this would become part of the Chicago Hub Network, Illinois' new high-speed rail system.[16] Presently, Amtrak trains run on another railroad about half a mile west of the new transfer center.

References

  1. ↑ "Routes". SMTD.
  2. ↑ "General Info". SMTD.
  3. ↑ "Basic Fare Information". SMTD.
  4. ↑ "Eligibility". SMTD.
  5. ↑ "Stats & Docs". SMTD.
  6. ↑ "Apps". SMTD.
  7. ↑ "GTFS Info". SMTD.
  8. ↑ "News". SMTD.
  9. ↑ "SMTD Adding Saturday Night Service". SMTD.
  10. ↑ http://www.smtd.org/news/2017/1/5/night-service-changes-begin-monday-january-9th
  11. ↑ "SMTD changing name to Sangamon Mass Transit District". State-Journal Register.
  12. ↑ http://www.sj-r.com/news/20170202/smtd-demolition-project-is-first-phase-for-transportation-hub
  13. ↑ http://www.smtd.org/2018-system-redesign
  14. ↑ http://www.sj-r.com/news/20160411/city-of-springfield-to-try-again-for-16-million-in-rail-consolidation-funding
  15. ↑ http://www.sj-r.com/news/20161010/smtd-off-street-bus-terminal-expected-in-2017
  16. ↑ http://www.sj-r.com/news/20171215/illinois-2-billion-high-speed-rail-project-in-final-phase

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