Cbus extends run until 10 p.m. on weekdays

People enjoying a late dinner or drinks in the Short North and Brewery District soon will be able to linger a little longer if they plan to take the Cbus home.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority will extend by an hour the free Downtown circulator bus, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., on weekdays starting Monday. The move is part of the authority’s efforts to tweak routes as part of its regular service changes. The Cbus runs until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights and until 6 p.m. Sunday.

“There’s a lot of activity in the Short North all week long, not just over the weekends,” said Marty Stutz, COTA vice president. “We often hear from businesses and customers that it would be nice if they could have even more opportunities to take Cbus, and by extending it an hour, we make that possible.”

COTA also will adjust timing for the Cbus on weekdays and the Cmax bus-rapid transit line that runs on Cleveland Avenue on both weekdays and weekends to contend with construction and other hurdles along those routes.

High Street through the Short North, for example, has been clogged by construction crews working on streets and sidewalks and private development.

COTA launched the Cbus in 2014 as an experimental free circulator. It remains the bus network’s only free line, running primarily along High Street between 3rd Avenue in the Short North and Sycamore Street in the Brewery District. Buses are scheduled to arrive at stops every 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the time of day.

Ridership on that line continues to grow. In 2017, riders took about 664,000 trips on the Cbus, up from 574,000 trips in 2016. COTA typically measures productivity in passengers per hour. The Cbus grew from about 26 passengers per hour in 2016 to 30 passengers per hour in 2017. So far this year, it’s up to nearly 33 passengers per hour.

“Ridership on the Cbus continues to be strong,” Stutz said.