City bus service apt to start 30 minutes earlier; downtown bus station to stay in modular buildings two more winters

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council this week will discuss changes for city bus patrons that would start weekday service at 5:20 a.m. instead of 5:50 a.m. to give patrons a better chance to get to their destinations before 7 a.m., Brad DeBrower, the city's transit director, said Monday.

At the same time, DeBrower proposes to end weekday service at 6:20 p.m. instead of the current 6:40 p.m. to allow the added minutes in the morning when city buses are more heavily used.

The proposed transit changes will make major changes to two routes, one from Ellis Park and one from Kirkwood Community College. In both instances, the routes will trade “unproductive loop segments” for better service through the higher ridership areas. Seven other routes will undergo more minor changes.

On Monday, too, Mayor Ron Corbett told the Downtown Rotary that the city's downtown bus station will remain in modular buildings in a parking lot along Second Street SE at 12th Avenue SE for two more winters.

Corbett noted in his update that the City Council is in the process of buying two-and-half blocks now occupied by a Pepsi warehouse and maintenance facility along Sixth Avenue SE to use for a new Intermodal Transit Facility. The new facility will need one block, and the city intends to sell the other block and a half of property once it purchases it from Pepsi, Corbett said.

The mayor did not anticipate Pepsi moving from the site until October 2011 at the earliest.

Corbett noted that he had favored returning the bus operation to the flood-damaged Ground Transportation Center, but he said his opinion did not prevail on the City Council. The city now plans to sell the former GTC depot. Corbett said one idea is to point out to potential buyers that the space can be expanded from the existing 13,000 square feet to 33,000 square feet.