Transit Action Network (TAN)

MAX pylon at the Waldo stop

It’s been on our agenda for a long time, but we first wrote about “seamless transit” back in May http://bit.ly/abH9n1.  We consider it an issue because there are invisible barriers to transit riders who need to move about the region using buses operated by the three transit agencies.

Closeup of MAX pylon at Waldo stop

Two recent developments move the region a little closer to achieving seamless transit.

[1] – Johnson County Transit initiated a new bus route (575/875) in July http://bit.ly/fUembw connecting Waldo with Johnson County Community College via 75th Street and Quivira Road.  However, there was no evidence of the service at Waldo, except when a bus was actually there.  In response to our request to its Board of Commissioners in August http://bit.ly/goLu99, KCATA has posted a map and schedule for Route 575/875 at the Waldo MAX stop.  To our knowledge this is the first time a map and schedule for a Johnson County Transit route has been posted in Missouri.  Our hats are off to the KCATA and JCT staff who made this happen.  We hope a similar posting for Route 556/856 at the Plaza MAX stop will follow.  And then maybe something at 10th and Main where dozens of JCT buses stop every weekday.

Close-up of the map and schedule displayed on the MAX pylon.  JCT Route 575/875 is shown in the green panel at the lower left of the poster.

[2] – Mid-America Regional Council has convened a Seamless Transit Work Group within its Transit Committee.  Through this group, Transit Action Network will work with MARC and transit agency staff, plus representatives of other organizations, to define seamless transit — making the region’s transit network easier to use is a first working definition — and to outline steps the transit agencies should take to achieve it.

Two small steps for transit agencies and MARC.  Two giant leaps toward seamless transit.

http://bit.ly/abH9n1