Rides Mass Transit District will debut a new route in Marion starting Monday, as well as changes made to the intercity route between Marion and Carbondale.
The “Marion Crosstown” route will run Monday through Saturday, and features eight stops on an hourly basis. It will run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. It will run in tandem with the existing “Wildcat Route.”
“We’ve had really good feedback in Marion with the Wildcat Route, so we’re just trying to build off that and still give people additional access in the community,” Ana DeUnamuno, RMTD public relations coordinator, said.
The fixed route aims to give riders an alternative to calling in and scheduling a trip separately. It will only cost $1 per county for adults and 50 cents per county for seniors, persons with disabilities and children. Local transit passes will also be accepted.
“If people may not be able to prepare in advance to make those reservations, they at least have, between the Wildcat Route and now this Crosstown route, more options to be able to hop on the bus at whatever stop is convenient for them,” DeUnamuno said.
Buses will depart from RMTD Park-and-Ride at 6:15 a.m. to begin the route, and will stop at Heritage Apartments at Enterprise Way, the Lighthouse Shelter, Kroger, Walmart, Civic Circle Boulevard near Man-Tra-Con, Aisin, Meadowland Parkway, and Heartland Regional Medical Center, before returning to the Park-and-Ride station.
The route will repeat every hour, meaning Marion riders can expect consistent and reliable transportation to many of the most in-demand sites in town.
“It’ll be such a fantastic resource for folks who live in different parts of our community to have easier access to things like groceries, healthcare and employment,” Marion communications director Rachel Stroud said.
RMTD will also be making changes to the existing intercity route between Marion and Carbondale. The weekday route will run hourly from 5:15 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the Saturday route will run every two hours from 6:15 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The “Marion-Carbondale Intercity” route will replace the former route between the cities, and will feature some new stops along the way.
The intercity route adds Veterans Airport, Logan Primary, Ten Oaks Apartments and the Carterville McDonald’s to the existing route, while removing the Meadowland Parkway, ReaderLink and Schnucks stops.
“It gives people more of a bridge between Marion to Carbondale to have more stops,” DeUnamuno. “Whereas the current intercity route did not offer as much of that.”
As RMTD prepares to hand off the Saluki Express route to Jackson County Mass Transit District, some stops in Carbondale such as the SIU Student Center, Saluki and Field Apartments, and the Amtrak station intend to keep that familiar service for RMTD customers.
“People in Carbondale can still expect to be able to travel to other regions in Carbondale, but also to any region in Carterville and Marion,” DeUnamuno said.
For more information, including a full timetable of each route, visit www.ridesmtd.com/routes-by-county/. A live map of Rides Mass Transit District buses can be found on the TransLoc app.
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