Byline: John Burgeson
Aug. 22--BRIDGEPORT -- You would never know it by visiting the city's bus terminal, but in less than three weeks, most of the existing bus routes would see major changes. Even on the buses themselves, there's no indication that there are significant route adjustments in the works -- including the buses that serve routes that will soon no longer exist.
"Ah, yes, we're working hard on that," said John Weldon, the interim director of planning and development for the Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority. "You don't know how hard we're working on that down here on this."
Indeed, the GBTA has a colossal task before it. Not only must the transit system move into its new terminal two blocks north of the old John Street facilities, but the agency also has to implement significant changes in 13 of the 18 routes it now has.
The city's new $23 million bus terminal, built off Water Street on the former site of its old train depot, will be formally dedicated at a ceremony set for 2 p.m. today.
The new terminal will be put in service, along with the new bus schedules, on Sept. 2.
Preparations for the route changes include training drivers -- a process that began several weeks ago, Weldon said -- but also getting the word out about the new schedule.
Weldon said that soon a pamphlet detailing the new routes would be issued. There also will be a display at the old bus terminal describing the new routes.
"We're not going to leave anyone without service," Weldon said. "The changes or elimination of some routes will be picked up by other routes."
But, he added, "We can't tell people too much in advance that a new schedule is coming, because then people will wonder: 'Where is the new schedule?' "
Weldon said that just completing the graphic design of a map showing the new routes is a major undertaking. "I can't tell you how often we've been back and forth with the printers on this," he said
Sept. 2, in addition to the first day of service at the new bus terminal and the new schedules, is also the first full week of school in Bridgeport. Some of the city's children use GBTA buses to get to school, with the younger ones usually escorted by their parents.
The heavily used Route 1, for example, will no longer serve the P.T. Barnum Apartments on the city's West Side. Instead, the public housing complex will be served by Route 8, which will continue to travel north on Main Street to the Westfield Trumbull mall.
"Don't worry, everyone on my route knows," said the Route 1 driver, who didn't want to give her name. "For one thing, it's posted on the Internet," she said, referring to the transit agency's Web site, www.gbta.com. And word-of-mouth has filled in those without Internet access. "Believe me, when we found out, they found out."
But other riders weren't quite so sure.
"No, I didn't know that there were going to be changes," said Route 12 passenger Joanne Roach, who said she usually uses the Route 6 bus to take her children to school from her home on Reservoir Avenue. Routes 6 and 12 will be combined on Sept. 2 to form a new Route 6, which will offer 30-minute-interval service between the new terminal and the Trumbull mall, and will also serve the University of Bridgeport and Seaside Park.
Passenger Tony Fields, aboard the Route 8 bus, said changes coming to Route 1 "don't make sense -- that used to be a straight shot east to west." Sean Scott, who takes the Route 16 bus, was worried that its elimination would mean less frequent service for Paradise Green in Stratford, where he lives. "That bus runs, like, every half-hour," he said. But one passenger looks forward to the switch. "It's going to be better, a lot better, with the shiny new bus terminal," said Paula Rabbitor of Fairfield Avenue.
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