ROUTE 39 (EASTWAY)

The Eastway bus used to be a very popular bus when it was the bus from Uptown to UNCC. However, since the trips to UNCC have been changed to the N. Tryon St. bus, this route has lost its usefullness. While the bus serves a crosstown population along Eastway Drive, it then turns down Central Avenue, a street that has bus service every 8 to 15 minutes during the day.

Route 39 (Eastway) would be much better utilized as a crosstown bus and a direct link for those from the Northeast side of town to Social Service, Mental Health and the medical offices along Billingsley Rd. Instead of turning onto Central, the bus should continue along Eastway Dr., crossing Independence Blvd. and continuing down Wendover Rd., turning right on Marvin Rd., left on Billingsley, left on Randolph Rd., right on Wendover, left on Sharon Rd., right on Runnymeade, left on Colony, right on Roxborough Rd., then left on Morrison Blvd., stopping in front of Dillards at Southpark Mall. The return trip would then turn left on Sharon, right on Wendover and follow the route in reverse to N. Tryon.

ROUTE 40X (ALBEMARLE ROAD)

This route is currently an Express Route. We are proposing that this route be downgraded to a regular route and the entire route from Uptown to Harrisburg Rd. become a regular route running from early morning to late night. This bus would serve as a bus for everyone running along the Independence Busway and would be a nonstop bus between Uptown and the Eastland Mall area.

This proposal would involve splitting Route 9 in half. Route 9 would no longer run past Eastland Mall. Route 40 would allow passengers who would normally travel Route 9 to get to Eastland Mall nonstop travel. The Route 9 portion of the trip past Eastland Mall would be handled by the Route 40 bus. Since Route 9 would no longer be running 4 to 8 busses past Eastland Mall each hour, those busses would be utilized to operate Route 40.

ROUTE 43 (BALLANTYNE)

The bus between the LYNX light rail and Ballantyne is semi-successful. However, major changes need to be made.

The current route from the Sharon Rd. West LYNX station duplicates two other routes, Park Rd. (Route 19) and Sharon Rd. (Route 20).

We propose that this route be changed to depart and end at the I-485 LYNX station. The bus would then travel from the LYNX station, turning left onto I-485 to Hwy. 51 (Pineville-Matthews Rd.).  The bus would then continue straight along HWY 51, crossing Johnston Rd. and continuing to Carmel Rd., turning right onto Carmel Rd., then turning left onto Johnston Rd., connecting to the existing route to John J. Delaney. However, when the bus reaches John J. Delaney and Ballantyne Commons Parkway, the bus would turn left and follow Ballantyne Commons Parkway for the next 2 miles to Stonecrest Shopping Center, continuing on to Promenade at I-485 and Providence Rd., then turning left onto Providence Rd. and continuing to the Arboretum Shopping Center, where it would turn around at the stop in the shopping center and return in the exact opposite direction.

This rerouting would give riders access along southern Charlotte between Pineville and Providence Rd., and would allow Express Riders who now travel Providence Rd., Rea Rd. and Carmel Rd. access to leave/return home during regular bus hours instead of only having access to these areas during Express hours only. It would also give Express Riders the ability to travel directly to the LYNX line instead of having to travel Uptown and then south again.

We project that this rerouting would add a minimum of $250,000 per year in additional revenue, or $2.5 million over the next 10 years.

ROUTE 65X (MATTHEWS)

ROUTE 77X (NORTH MECK)

In 2009, this bus stopped serving Northlake Mall. This bus needs to begin servicing Northlake Mall again on both the Inbound and Outbound trips from 9 AM until late afternoon and in the evening to handle passenger traffic until the mall closes.

ROUTE 79X (CONCORD MILLS)

This bus needs a minor route revision. The bus currently leaves I-85 and travels down N. Tryon St., duplicating existing service. We propose that this bus should be rerouted to turn right on University City Blvd. to Harris Blvd., turning left on Harris to N. Tryon St. and then continuing on its existing route. This change would serve the western portion of the UNCC campus and would generate much more traffic from students not wanting to travel Route 11 for an hour. Students would be able to get from Uptown to UNCC in 20 to 25 minutes.

In addition, this bus should be expanded to operate 7 days a week between the Uptown CTC and along N. Tryon to the Pavillion. The bus should operate every 30 minutes between Uptown Charlotte and University City near the Hilton hotel. Service every 2 hours could be offered as an extension from the Hilton at University City to the Speedway and Concord Mills. This bus should be a regular Express bus, with fares of $2.00, not the current $3.00. Just because the bus straddles the county line is not a reason to charge the extra dollar. People, especially students, would not hesitate to pay the extra 50 cents for the faster service. This bus could be created by reducing the number of buses serving Route 11 since many of the passengers would be switched to Route 79 instead of Route 11.

ROUTE 221 (HARRIS/IDLEWILD)

We propose the Route 221 be merged with Route 17, creating one bus route, with Route 17 being the surviving route. Route 17 would run the exact route that 221 serves from Eastland Mall to the Monroe Rd. area that Route 221 currently serves.

The portion of Route 17 that currently serves Independence Blvd. would be taken over by the downgrading of Route 65X to a regular route, which would run from the Uptown CTC to the Matthews Park and Ride at Independence Pointe/Windsor Square.

ROUTE 222 (PENCE ROAD)

The Pence Road bus should be used to fill in for service from other buses revised at the Eastland Transit Center. Route 222 should turn right onto Central when it leaves the Eastland Transit Center, then left on Sharon-Amity, turning left on Albemarle Rd., then turning right on Executive Center Dr. (taking over the portion of Route 9 that now travels on this route), then left on Farm Pond, crossing over Albemarle and continuing on Farm Pond, turning right on Lawrence Orr Rd., then turning right on Hickory Grove Rd. and then continuing across Harris Blvd. and following the existing route to Target on Albemarle Rd.

Huge numbers of people would use this bus as it would service the business area for Social Security, Employment Security Commission's Unemployment Office and numerous other businesses along the route. It would also take the bus along Farm Pond Lane, which is almost 100% retail and multi-family, serving many more people than the Harris Blvd. portion of the route (Albemarle Rd. is already served by several other routes). Most importantly, this would give the Executive Center Drive portion of the route service in BOTH directions, which currently only has service one way. The number of people who will use this bus is reason enough to offer service both ways. In addition, we propose that this bus become a regular full service bus, which would create a large increase in fare revenue for this route. Improved service more than justifies this change.

ROUTE 232 (GRIER HEIGHTS)