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Council supports proposal for bus route changes, Magic City Connector Route

by

Sydney Cromwell

Courtesy of BJCTA

Courtesy of BJCTA

Homewood City Council voted to support a series of proposed changes to Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority bus routes — including one eliminated route and one new route — at its Oct. 8 meeting.

Council members have been in discussions with the BJCTA for months about amendments to their bus contract to reduce service hours and costs, which many on the council have said they believe is costing more than the city is benefiting.

The bus service has been a sore point with council members during budget hearings for the past several years. Homewood currently has three active routes with stops in the city.

The proposal that the City Council voted in favor of tonight would entirely eliminate Route 39, which travels from downtown through Edgewood to the Wildwood shopping center. It would merge the stops on Route 42, which passes through 18th Street and U.S. 31 to Brookwood Medical Center, with Route 31, which travels between downtown, Vestavia Hills and Hoover.

Additionally, the Wildwood Walmart stop on Route 39 would be added to Route 3, which serves a series of downtown Birmingham stops. Ward 1 Councilor Britt Thames said ridership data shows no one gets on or off at any Route 39 stops except the Walmart, and those riders are heading to or from downtown Birmingham.

"It was an inefficient route," Thames said.

Adding the Walmart stop to Route 3 would increase the number of bus visits from 15 to 18 per day, Thames said. That stop and the Route 42 stops merged with Route 31 would also begin to see Saturday service, he said.

An existing route that serves U.S. 280 from the BJCTA's downtown intermodal facility would add Homewood's bus stop on the north end of 18th Street to its route as well, Thames said.

A notice of route changes from the BJCTA states that merging Routes 42 and 31 would reduce stops in Homewood and at Brookwood Village and Brookwood Medical Center to seven times on weekdays and five on weekends. A timetable of stops for the proposed route is not available.

Route 14, which travels Oxmoor Road and the Palisades area in addition to Birmingham neighborhoods on the other side of Red Mountain, would not change.

The City Council has also been in discussion with the BJCTA about adding Homewood stops to a Magic City Connector Route. As described at tonight's council meeting, the route would run from 18th Street in Homewood to the Topgolf facility, with four Homewood stops, a number of Birmingham stops and a stop at the intermodal facility. The existing Magic City Connector, Route 90, includes stops at Birmingham City Hall, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Linn Park, the Civic Center, UAB and Five Points.

Thames said the Magic City Connector would run every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and every 30 minutes from 6 to 10 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and every 30 minutes during Saturday service hours.

With these changes, Thames said "really we're expanding services."

Adding the Magic City Connector Route would cost Homewood about $31,200, plus about $1,700 to add the Walmart stop to Route 3 and $208,000 the city has already budgeted for bus services, Thames said. In all, making these changes would save the city about $100,000.

The BJCTA is holding a series of public hearings about route changes in Homewood, Mountain Brook and Birmingham. These meetings include:

Thames said he is not sure of the timeline for the BJCTA to make a decision on whether to enact these route changes.

Also at the Oct. 8 City Council meeting, council members:

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