Las Cruces City Council approved new changes to the Roadrunner Transit System with the hopes of making the buses more direct and increasing service.
Las Cruces City Council approved phase one of a plan to increase service for Roadrunner Transit, the plan is cost neutral and changes routes to make them more direct. Tom Murphy, MPO Officer for the Mesilla Valley MPO, says he is hoping the new routes will encourage more riders.
“We’ve kind of oriented the routes to operate more linearly,” Murphy said. “So, if you’re getting across the north side of town you don’t have to take a loop around the South side to get where you want, and you can still transfer at the Mesilla Valley Intermodal Center to get on a route to get you across town. We’re hoping that the routes are more direct for the customers.”
Murphy says they surveyed riders to find out which destinations were important, and tried to make it easier for customers to get there.
“Service to grocery stores,” Murphy said. “We found among the ridership that was a very important destination, so now each of the routes has at least one grocery store in it, and we would hope that would reduce the need to transfer buses, so you spend less time traveling, more time getting to where your going.”
City Councilor Kasandra Gandara says the new more direct service will be more convenient for riders.
“I think it will be an important aspect and factor for folks to possibly encourage them to use the bus system,” Gandara said. “I know that was one of the things that was concerning to them, how long it took an individual to get from point A to point B, and sometimes spending a good half of their day on the bus getting to and from places.”
The City Council also approved a plan for additional phases to be passed in the future including extending service to 8 p.m. and increasing Saturday and Sunday service. Gandara says increasing hours even later than 8 is something that needs to be seriously looked into to help people get to and from work.
“To not have transportation,” Gandara said. “And to have that work schedule would be really difficult to get to and from your work and so I of course feel very sensitive and compassionate for folks that do have that sort of swing shift schedule, and we need to find the funding, make it work somehow to increase those hours of operation.”
Tom Murphy says they will study the ridership as the phases are implemented to make sure there is a demand for the increased hours before the city invests more money.
“This will give us metrics to show us how well the system is performing,” Murphy said. “We can come back with numbers, so that the council if they decide to put more resources into the system, they have something to point to base their decisions on.”
Murphy says they hope to have the first phase of the plan in operation by July.
