WI: Eau Claire City Transit to celebrate 50 years of service

The Eau Claire Transit system will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, and with that milestone, the city is looking forward to expanding and improving the system during the next year.

Eau Claire Transit Manager Ty Fadness said that, while the current bus system was bought out by the Eau Claire Transportation Company in 1975, the city has some interesting history regarding public transit.

“Eau Claire was one of the first cities to adapt horse drawn trolleys,” he said. “It was actually the first to have heated trolleys using electricity in the entire nation. That was developed because of our climate. In the twenties, the trolley system started to decline and [was] replaced by car lines. Buses slowly came after that.”

In 1985, the city built what was supposed to be a temporary transfer center downtown which lasted until it was torn down to build the new transfer center, scheduled to open up this summer.

“So it’s kind of an exciting time not just because it’s the fiftieth anniversary but also because the new transfer center is opening which has been a long time coming,” said Fadness.

When the bus system was first put into place, it was operated using a flag system where people would call to have the bus pick them up at a specific location. Now the bus route has 550 stops and the city is looking to expand it by starting a year-long micro transfer pilot program.

“That is where there are smaller vehicles that will pick people up at their door and bring them anywhere within that zone or to the transfer center,” said Fadness.

He added that this service will be limited to a certain new zone in the city not currently easily accessible by the public transit system.

“The geography is interesting in that it’s relatively low in population density, but the people there are interested in transit,” he said. “There’s lots of zero- and one-car households and we think those people would use public transportation.”

Currently a fixed route wouldn’t optimally serve the people in that area of the city. Over time, he said, the hope is that they’ll learn to make things more efficient and see if this pilot program is something the city will continue to pursue in the long term.

Fares for this new program will be the same as other transit fare prices.

In the meantime, the city is also hoping to find ways to provide free fares for K through 12th grade students and Veterans.

Other efforts are underway to help discover ways to improve the system and increase ridership.

“We’re going to be doing community meetings this spring to meet with [different] groups and tell them the story of transit and why it’s important to the community,” he said. “We want to make sure that the community shapes what the transit development plan is. [We’re hoping to] recommend service alternative for fixed routs, making it more efficient and trying to serve more people.”

He concluded that 2025 offers a lot of promise for the public transit system, being the safest and most fuel efficient option there is in the city.

“There’s all these positives,” he said. “We want to get people on the bus, so we want to make and create a system that meets the needs of the community, and we’re looking forward to another 50 years.”

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