WS Chronicle

Winston-Salem Transit Authority (WSTA) has added night and weekend service to many bus routes for 2018.

WSTA and Winston-Salem City Council members held a press conference last week to highlight the route changes, which went into effect Jan. 2. The changes are in response to rider feedback to last year’s total route overhaul, which was designed to make them more efficient. The new routes were adjusted last year for some communities that lost service in the overhaul. With these new changes, 11 routes are gaining either night service, weekend service or both.

“The public wanted more service, specifically night service and Saturday and Sunday service,” said WSTA General Manager Art Barnes. “And the City Council was so gracious, after looking at all this information, to underwrite this service.”

City Council Member Dan Besse, who chairs the Public Works Committee, said many people rely on the bus system to get to work and the various other places they need to go. He said filling in the gaps on the bus service is worth the nearly $1 million the city is spending to enhance the system.

“That is a needed investment in the ability of the people of Winston-Salem to access jobs, to access healthy food, to access affordable housing, and it is part of a systematic multiyear effort that Winston-Salem has been undertaking in this decade to bring our public bus transit system up to par with our peer cities in North Carolina,” said Besse.

Besse said that they’re not cutting service, but looking at ways to enhance it going forward. Barnes said the next step in that effort will be a $600,000 initiative to add shelters to many bus stops around the city.

Among the many areas with routes receiving the additional service are Skyline Village, Boston-Thurmond, Cleveland Avenue Homes, Mineral Springs, Happy Hill and Kimberley Park.

The following routes now have additional service:

*Routes 80, 86, 90, 104, 106 and 108 had night, Saturday and Sunday service added.

*Routes 91 and 92 received just night and Saturday service.

*Routes 100, 101 and 107 received Sunday service in addition to the night and Saturday service they already had.  Route 107 serves both the city’s hospitals and is used by their employees to get to work.

*Route 94, which already had Saturday service, now has night and Sunday service.

Route 100 will be changed starting in February to travel to Hanes Mall. The new route serves students at Winston-Salem State University, Salem College and UNC School of the Arts, but is the route with the lowest ridership. The change in the route is hoping to increase ridership by adding a destination students would like to travel to.

Routes 81, 82, 95, 101 and 103 also have some minor route changes to help them maintain their schedules.

Details on those routes, along with all the city’s bus routes, can be found at www.wstransit.com.