Changes being made by Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority or StanRTA to become more efficient and more cost-effective will affect public transit routes in Ceres only to a small degree.
Adam Barth, Chief Executive Officer of StanRTA updated the Ceres City Council last week about forthcoming changes.
“We’re in a time right now where we are having to make some service cuts due to our funding reduction in our revenue,” Barth said. “So because of that, we’re looking at our routes, trying to find ways to make them better, but also trying to deal with this funding shortfall and how we can better craft our routes.”
StanRTA plans to seek public feedback to refine service changes later this year.
StanRTA has 27 routes with four types of routes – frequent routes, local routes, inner city routes and express routes and inner county routes to the BART and ACE train stations in Pleasanton and Lathrop, respectively.
While the objective is to trim off the less used routes, Barth said “we do need to balance that with our rural areas as well because there are some rural areas in our county that we serve that we don’t want to cut off service … but we need to need to balance that.”
Route changes are being based on ridership levels.
The city of Ceres gave up control of its transit services years ago to Modesto because it was operating in the red. It was later turned over to StanRTA.
“We can all take a deep breath here in Ceres,” said Angela Swanson, a senior transit analyst with StanRTA and the project manager for a short-range transit. “Your service is essentially going to remain unchanged under the plan and the proposals being brought forward.”
Originally under Modesto Area Express (MAX) everything ran from a hub and spoke, in and out of downtown Modesto in the Modesto Transit Center.
“What we’re finding though,” said Swanson, “is that people don’t always need to come from the outer areas of the cities, in the rural areas, into downtown Modesto, and then pulls back out again. We need hubs to move around more the way airlines are designed so you’re moving people around without having to go into the center.
“So a key place that we see still needing to have a satellite hub is to develop the Ceres Walmart property more to be able to do more than what we have for our street level where we have the five rods that come in and out right now. We’re looking long-term to be able to do some sort of an offsite facility and to really develop that. With the new service plan, one way to cut hours but not cut service is to do shorter routes that come to these satellite hubs and then moving people out from there. So that’s one of the key changes we’re making.
Swanson specifically noted that the routes affecting Ceres are the West Modesto, 29, 42, 47, and then the 10 express route that comes down to Ceres between Turlock and Modesto.
“The only service you are losing is the connectivity coming from West Modesto on the (Route) 47. It was on Hatch that connected into where the 20 and 21 are. That was something that was requested that never ridership never materialized. So we had to let that segment go.”
StanRTA is also looking at options for Route 61 which runs in the east county and directly from Hughson to the Ceres Walmart, and to the Transit Center in Modesto.
“We are looking at some options because this is an underutilized service, but Hughson is loud and clear – they still need to come to Ceres. They need to get to downtown. So do we run maybe fewer hours? Do we run more express hours? We’re looking at some options, but again, that remains in service.”
Another goal of StanRTA is to simplify routes and interconnectivity “so it’s more efficient, so we aren’t tying up as many buses, really making the system flow better.”
A result is that bus riders will be asked to “walk a little bit further” to a bus stop.
“Right now our standard in the urbanized areas is about a quarter mile or about a five- to seven-minute walk. We’re looking now at asking people to walk up to a third of the mile, but we’re keeping their frequency up so that it’s worth it to walk that little bit further to the bus. But that allows us to make the routes a little more streamlined. “
Swanson recommended that riders interested in route changes to visit connectthes.org to see current routes and how they are proposed to change.
Swanson said that StanRTA plans to preserve paratransit service for the elderly and individuals with disabilities as unchanged.
Currently StanRTA does not provide fixed route six days in the year for holidays. The plan is to close service for four out of six holidays, but still operate paratransit on Christmas and Thanksgiving so those individuals with mobility limitations can find rides to friends and loved ones.
Swanson also reminded the council that in the fall of 2029, StanRTA will be operating out of new headquarters at the corner of Crows Landing and Service roads.
