NORMAL – Christine Tsui and Geethani Cabraal live at Ironwood Gardens Apartments at the far north end of Linden Ave. in Normal and have been making use of one of the “tripper” buses provided by the community’s bus service, Connect Transit, in order to get to their jobs every day. From that location, they are able to continue on with their day. Tripper buses are short-time buses which help residents who live at the far north end of Normal and the far south end of Bloomington make connections with the rest of the bus system.

At one of six “listening sessions” set up by Connect Transit and held in the Community Room of Normal Public Library on June 29, Tsui and Cabraal made their concerns known regarding the possibility of extra effort and expense they would incur should tripper routes be discontinued. Tsui and Cabraal were among 12 people who had questions and attended the 60-minute session, as did Normal Town Council members Kathleen Lorenz and Chemberly Chambers.

Tsui and Cabraal use the tripper buses to get from the Ironwood Gate Apartments to get to the intersection of Northfield Rd. and School St., the nearest bus stop from the tripper point they use, to get on with their day. “If they stop the tripper, that would keep me from getting to Raab Rd. to get to the Pink bus,” Cabraal explained. Tsui and Cabraal met for a one-on-one session with Isaac Thorne, interim general manager and Jeff Holtke, marketing manager, for the bus system, to explain their concerns.

Without the tripper bus, “I’d have to walk to Northpoint and School,” Cabraal explained. Tsui uses the tripper bus to get to Uptown for work at Illinois State University. Tripper buses only operate for the first few hours of the work day and for a few hours beginning at 5p.m. at the close of the work day.

Tripper buses began running last August and were only slated to be operating for six months, Thorne said. But they have continued as the result of their need. In addition to discussing tripper routes, the sessions have updated residents to minor changes being made to four routes, including the Green Route, which loops between Uptown Normal and Downtown Bloomington.

If Connect Transit doesn’t keep the tripper, Tsui said, she would hope another route that runs near her home would be expanded to include Ironwood Gate Apartments. Part of the problem residents who live there have is that there are no sidewalks around the property. No sidewalks make putting a permanent bus stop there difficult.

To Tsui’s and Cabraal’s way of thinking, extending the Pink Route which includes the apartment complex, would be the next best solution.

Tsui and Cabraal said they are hopeful that after talking with Thorne and Holtke, a solution will be found that will help them and other commuters like them.

Of the six sessions with the public that were held in June, the biggest concern expressed by riders involves tripper routes, Thorne said. The thought of losing tripper routes “has been giving people a lot of discomfort,” he said. He added that costs for the tripper routes are different for the Twin Cities. It costs Connect Transit $60 per trip to run a tripper route to Hilltop Mobile Home Park, while it costs $30 per trip to run a tripper to north Normal. On average, by comparison, Thorne said, fixed route service costs Connect Transit $4 per trip.

More listening sessions will be announced in July.

Fixed Bus Stops Improving Performance: August will mark two years since Connect Transit initiated fixed stops where riders must be to be picked up by a bus. Prior to that time, riders could be picked up at any street corner. Thorne said the fixed stop concept, when it was introduced, helped to increase on-time performance. He said the “any corner” pick-up method produced an on-time performance rate of 76 percent. Fixed pick-up points have increased that figure to 93 percent.

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