Public bus routes that serve Morgan Hill and Gilroy will see
some changes in the coming year, but the extent to which users will
notice will vary.
Public bus routes that serve Morgan Hill and Gilroy will see some changes in the coming year, but the extent to which users will notice will vary.
Officials from the Valley Transportation Authority presented these changes at two sparsely attended public meetings last Thursday, one in Morgan Hill and one in Gilroy.
The most noticeable change will likely be the improvement of bus line 68, which takes riders from Gilroy to downtown San Jose via Monterey Road.
Jim Unites, VTA deputy director of service planning and accessible services, said buses on that route often get crowded, not only at peak morning and evening hours, but also in the middle of the day.
In response, the VTA plans to run buses on that route every 15 minutes, as opposed to every 30 minutes as it operates now. Also, a new southbound trip would be added on weekend evenings, and a new northbound trip would be added on weekday evening.
“We’ve seen a 15 to 20 percent increase in ridership (on line 68) since January 2008,” said Unites.
The VTA proposes changes to its existing bus routes every year. The suggestions are based on ridership over the previous year.
Overall, VTA officials said Thursday that use of public transportation has climbed steadily in the last couple of years. In October alone, more than 124,000 people used the bus routes.
Another proposed change in Morgan Hill is the elimination of line 15, a community bus which carries riders from the area of La Crosse and Calle Enrique south of town, to city hall and the public library, to the Jackson Oaks area on the eastern end of Dunne Avenue.
Unites said use of that route has declined substantially, with an average of only three riders per trip, and six riders per hour. He said in 2007, the VTA even tried a marketing campaign to increase ridership on line 15, to no avail.
Only two members of the public attended the meeting which took place at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center. A similar meeting later Thursday at Gilroy City Hall drew about a dozen people.
The most substantial change coming to bus transportation in Gilroy would be improvements to line 14 and line 17, both of which are community routes. Line 14 currently serves the Cal Train station on Monterey Road, to the shopping areas near Camino Arroyo in a “convoluted” route, Unites said. The new line 14 would be straightened out and extended to also serve Valley Health Center, Kaiser Medical Center and Saint Louise Regional Hospital, all of which are on the eastern side of U.S. 101. Furthermore, the frequency of the route would improve to operate every 30 minutes instead of every 60 minutes.
Also proposed to see significant changes in Gilroy is community bus line 17, which currently serves areas that will be served by line 14 when it is improved. VTA staff have suggested turning line 17 into a one-way circular route that serves the Cal Train station and the Social Services office on Tomkins Court, and its frequency would improve from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.
Many other minor changes have been proposed on VTA bus routes throughout Santa Clara County, and can be seen on the organization’s Web site, www.vta.org, according to Unites.
Charlotte Koch, a senior citizen who attended Thursday’s meeting in Morgan Hill and relies on VTA buses for transportation, did not have a specific complaint about the changes. She suggested that not enough people have been educated about the buses and other services VTA provides, and more people would ride the buses if they knew about them.
According to Linh Hoang of the VTA, 1,263 people board VTA buses on an average weekday in Morgan Hill. In Gilroy, that number increases to 1,478, with weekend boardings dropping significantly in both cities on the weekends.
Officials at last week’s meetings said after public feedback has been processed, the proposed bus route changes will be evaluated for approval by the VTA board. The changes could be implemented by July.
