Texas Transit Association

The new transit system in this East Texas town, started in March, has exceeded projections in ridership.

1,500 ride buses in first four days of city’s service
By JO LEE FERGUSON, March 22, 2003 Longview News-Journal

Fifteen hundred riders took trips on Longview’s buses during the first four days of operation.

Longview Transit General Manager Edward Esparza addressed the Longview Partnership Transportation Committee on Friday morning with an update on the city’s new fixed-route transit system after its first week of operation.

“I thought it (ridership) was really good,” Esparza said. “I did not think it would be as high at this point.”

Between Monday and Thursday, 1,510 riders boarded city buses. Ridership includes each person who boards a bus.

The week began with 299 riders on Monday. Storms hit Longview on Tuesday, and Esparza had expressed concern about how the bad weather would affect ridership.

“On Tuesday, our ridership increased to 372,” he said.

Ridership peaked at 430 on Wednesday and was at 406 on Thursday, he said.

The route known as the South Blue Route, which runs along High Street, Avalon and Mobberly avenues, has been the “number one route,” Esparza said. Those buses had 52 riders on Monday, 104 on Tuesday, 139 on Wednesday and 88 on Thursday. The South Green Route that runs past the Neiman Marcus National Service Center and on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard also has had good ridership, he said, with 54 riders on Monday, 68 on Tuesday, 89 on Wednesday and 91 on Thursday.

“The one that’s really surprised me is the West Red Route,” which runs in the Spring Hill and Pine Tree areas, Esparza said.

That route had 78 riders on Monday, 84 on Tuesday, 62 on Wednesday and 79 on Thursday.

“It never occurred to me this route would have that kind of ridership,” Esparza said.

The weakest route, he said, has been the North Green Route that runs primarily on Fourth Street.

“It’s still pretty busy,” Esparza said, with 30 riders Monday, 27 on Tuesday, 37 on Wednesday and 36 on Thursday.

Everybody rides free during the system’s first 30 days of operations.

“A lot of it right now is experimental,” Esparza said, explaining that the system will have an idea of what the normal ridership will be in the second month of operations, when people start paying fares to ride. At that time, bus rides will cost $1 for adults, 50 cents for people age 60 and older and people with disabilities and 75 cents for children ages 6 to 15. Children younger than 6 ride free with an adult. The fares include one transfer.

Esparza said 10-trip and 31-day passes also will be sold.{M6 The prices have not yet been set, but Esparza hopes to offer them at a discounted rate. He also hopes to have summer fare passes for children and university passes in the fall, since the buses go by Kilgore College-Longview Center and LeTourneau University.

Adjustments could be made to some of the routes in the future, something that would be considered around the end of the year, Esparza said. He told committee members that Longview Transit would consider taking one of the routes by the University of Texas at Tyler’s Longview University Center on U.S. 259.

For now, the routes start each morning at Magrill Plaza in downtown Longview, but Esparza said that could be changed in the future with the buses starting from along the routes to accommodate people riding to work. The bus system is, at this point, trying to determine its clients’ needs, Esparza said.

The Longview Transit buses are at this time plain white, without identifying logos except for the “head signs” indicating where they are traveling. But Esparza said a logo has been developed and he will start taking bids Monday to put the logos on the buses.

“Hopefully, within the next four to six weeks we’ll start seeing some logos,” Esparza said.