Gastonia Transit is revising all of its bus routes starting Saturday, June 2. The seven existing routes within the city will be consolidated to six, with the new routes all starting and ending at the same time. Each new route is named for a color, not for a street name or a stop on the route.
Vincent Wong, Gastonia’s director of community services, said the bus routes were revised based on the findings of a 2017 study. “The changes make our bus routes more flexible and user-friendly,” Wong said, emphasizing that it will now be more convenient for riders to transfer between routes. “Some passengers have had to wait an hour and a half, even two hours, if they need to change routes,” Wong said. “We’re improving the timing to reduce the waits.”
The six revised routes are longer and take riders to more destinations. The bus for each route will leave Bradley Station at Oakland Street and Main Avenue at the bottom of the hour, and will stop at major retail, employment, medical, recreation and government services destinations while traveling a one-hour loop that returns to the transit station.
Drop-by information sessions about the new bus routes will be held May 31 and June 1 at Bradley Station, with City Transit staff available to answer questions from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 5 p.m. both Thursday and Friday. The City decided to launch the new routes on a Saturday, which has an abbreviated schedule, to give riders a chance to try the new routes over a weekend.
Information about the new routes, including maps and timetables, is posted at Bradley Station and is available at public libraries, the County Health Department, Social Services and other government buildings on the transit routes.
Passengers take more than 282,000 trips on Gastonia city buses each year, and Wong hopes that number will increase. “By making our routes more efficient, we hope to serve existing riders better and attract new customers,” he said.
There was no additional cost to redesign the route map, and it will not cost the City more to operate the new routes. Bus fares will not change, remaining at $1.25 each way for regular customers and 60-cents for elderly and handicapped riders.
