New city buses ready to roll

James Coburn
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND June 27, 2009 12:34 am

— A smooth transition is planned for Wednesday when Citylink replaces the Eddy Trolley Service.
“The Broncho bus will be called Edmond Link and the Express Route will be Express Link,” said Shannon Entz, Edmond’s Community Development Block Grant coordinator.
Bus routes will expand from the general area service area with city colors similar to the three public high schools and the University of Central Oklahoma.
Broncho Link will enable unprecedented access to a bus stop at the Oxford Oaks Apartments, a half-mile east of Bryant Avenue.
Citylink will provide two other new bus stops, Crest Foods, 2200 S.W. 15th St. and Santa Fe; also 33rd Street and Broadway by making a crossover on Marilyn, Entz said.
Increasing ridership is one of three reasons why the City of Edmond is making the service user free, Entz said.
“It gives the opportunity to people who otherwise wouldn’t ride the bus,” she said. “For people to get basic service to doctors’ appointments, to the grocery store or wherever they need to go — the don’t have the money to do that — especially for the para-transit service.”
The city’s Share-A-Fare taxi program will stop because riders of low income have complained they still cannot afford the program even at a reduced rate.
“We felt strongly that we need to make it as affordable as possible. We want people to be able to get the health care they need, the grocery store, the pharmacies,” Entz said. “Too many times we’ve had people tell us, ‘I can’t afford my prescriptions this month if I have to pay a taxicab to take me to dialysis three days a week.’”
It also would cost the city more money to charge for the free service because staff would be needed to facilitate the process of collecting money, Entz said.
People will notice an absence of trolleys. A group of 5-year-old white para-transit vehicles will be leased temporarily from Metro Transit with the Citylink logo.
Delivery of eight new para-transit buses are expected. The city’s former transit provider, Metro Transit, has agreed to lease its vehicles to the city until eight new para-transit vehicles are delivered.
The Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority is the Edmond region’s federal recipient of federal transit administration funds.
“We had to negotiate with COTPA to receive the stimulus money for vehicles,” Entz said. “COTPA has not received the stimulus money yet. Therefore, we have not received it yet.”
These para-transit services are being purchased by the City of Edmond with $783,000 worth of federal stimulus funding.
The 2010 budget estimate of McDonald Transit to the City of Edmond is $543,000 compared to former provider COTPA at $603,820. The total cost of the new service is nearly $1.5 million, but this figure is offset by credits and federal funding.

THE CITYLINK Transfer Center is at Festival Market Place, one block west of Broadway on First Street. More information about bus routes offered by McDonald Transit is available by calling Citylink Customer Service at 417-6068 or go to www.edmondok.com.