Rock Region Metro reviving its Route 1 after covid-19 hiatus

Rock Region Metro will return Route 1/Pulaski Heights to its original route and schedule Monday, the transit agency for Pulaski County has announced.

The route was among several routes modified or cut in response to the coronavirus pandemic in May and came on top of a round of cutbacks in March, mainly to allow for “tripper” buses. “Tripper” buses are extra buses added on high ridership routes because of covid-19 social-distancing restrictions that limit the number of riders per bus to no more than 10.

Four routes that were cut are now being served as microtransit zones, where a bus rider can call a van to give him a ride to destinations within the zones or to bus stops served by the regular buses.

Routes 7, 12, 19 and 20 are being served through the METRO Connect Airport/ Port/Shorter Zone and Hensley – Limited Zone, said Becca Green, the agency’s spokeswoman.

Another route, Route 8/ Rodney Parham, is operating on a new circuit but not a new schedule.

Route 17 and the agency’s express service to Maumelle

and Sherwood won’t be back. The board decided in August to overhaul Rock Region’s regular bus service, and the Maumelle and Sherwood routes were among the lowest-ridership routes in the system.

“So, Route 1 was the only remaining route serving an area where transit service was suspended,” Green said in an email. “Bringing back the preCOVID-19 Route 1 connects the riders toward the north part of the route back to the transit network, … and we felt we had the operator staff to make that connection possible for riders.”

The route map and schedule were expected to be available today on the agency’s website at rrmetro.org.

The change was a welcome development for Rock Region, which has struggled with fallout from the pandemic. Ridership has plunged, nearly two dozen employees were temporarily laid off and at least four bus drivers tested positive for covid-19.

The latest ridership numbers weren’t immediately available, but passenger revenue for the first 10 months of the year totaled $797,095.64, slightly more than half of the $1.5 million the agency had budgeted.

“We’re having to make constant adjustments throughout the pandemic,” Green said. “We’re still engaged in our sanitization of vehicles, we’re still requiring face coverings for employees and riders, and we’re still doing extra decontamination of our facilities, but we’re all living in this same community where covid-19 caseloads are on the rise.

“The goal remains to keep as much transit service in play as possible while protecting public health, including the health of our employees and riders.”

Rock Region hopes to implement its new route overhaul by next spring or summer with, according to Green, the precise timing dependent on the pandemic.

Called RIDE 2020, the plan drops underperforming routes and replaces them with on-demand microtransit vans with resources shifted to busier routes that will allow for more frequent stops as well as expanded night and weekend service.

Little Rock and North Little Rock also will get new crosstown transfers, eliminating the need for riders to go downtown to make such transfers. The plan is designed to make transit service more efficient and accessible in a bid to attract new riders while remaining budget-neutral.

“The METRO team is excited to begin these transit network improvements for riders, including bringing more 30-minute service to more routes, expanding spans of service, adding more weekend service, providing more direct and faster routes, and expanding service to more residential, job, health and shopping sites,” Green said.