Regular routes make bus service attractive as CARTS ridership increases

By Mary Owen

With gas topping $4 a gallon, the area bus system known as CARTS is greeting new riders.

“We have been picking up regularly,” said Frank Brown, interim road supervisor for Chemeketa Area Regional Transportation System.

Brown said April statistics showed ridership throughout the CARTS service area is up by 18 percent, an amount he expects to jump another 3 percent with the next count.

“Fuel is a major part of the cause, but consistency of routes is another,” Brown said.

Oregon Housing and Associated Services’ Wheels Community Transportation program operates CARTS. The transportation system is a partnership between Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties to provide senior citizens, disabled, economically disadvantaged and other residents access to medical services, employment, educational, shopping and recreational opportunities.

Wheels designed and now operates a network of CARTS point-deviated, fixed routes in Marion and Polk counties that meet inter-regional connectivity needs.
Dial-a-ride service is provided in many areas not currently serviced by the fixed routes.

And CARTS connects with Salem’s Cherriots bus system, with service to and from the main bus terminal in downtown Salem.

“The whole system has grown,” Brown said. “The biggest growth in Marion County is to Gates and back.”

According to Brown, Santiam Canyon ridership has steadily increased since the first of the year.

Silverton and Mt. Angel ridership has picked up, but not quite as steadily, Brown said, but “I talked to one of the drivers recently while he was on his lunch break, and he said his morning commuters are increasing.”

With spiraling gas prices and shrinking budgets, Brown expects numbers to continue to rise.

“Dispatch gets three or four calls a day for information,” he said. “We’ve thought about adding routes if we could.”

CARTS buses operate Monday through Friday except for New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and the day after, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Times vary by route and schedules are posted online.

With better established routes and an increased demand for rides, gaps in service due to the scarcity of funding may join cheap gas prices as a thing of the past, Brown said.

“Routes have been established for awhile and predictability helps riders feel good about using the bus,” he said. “There’s nothing more convenient than driving your own car, but this is the next best thing.”

For now, rides cost $1.50 each way per adult and $1 per child, disabled or seniors 60 and older. Day passes are $3 for adults and $2 for children and seniors.

Ticket books of 10 are $13.50 and $9 respectively and monthly passes $45 and $30. Riders who buy monthly passes will break even at 15 rides, Brown said. Children under 5 ride free.

Despite the fact that less than 15 percent of operating costs are now covered by ticket income, Brown said a potential consequence of spiraling gas costs is “fares will possibly need to increase as well.”

Brown said the CARTS board will review costs and if a decision is made to increase fares, public hearings will be held.

A non-profit entity, CARTS is mainly funded by government means, he said.
“That’s tax dollars at work,” Brown said.

Future options may also include adding flex bus service between Silverton and Stayton, “if there is ever a need,” Brown said.

With the possibility of additional routes, smaller buses, some with more than 300,000 miles on them, may get replaced with larger ones, he said.

“We’re also adding bus shelters in both counties,” he added. “Most will be up by July.”

Silverton’s new shelter will be within half a block of the city library on Jersey Street, he said.

Currently, CARTS runs buses between Salem and Dallas, Salem and Woodburn/Mt. Angel, and Salem and Santiam Canyon. Various routes stop at cities in between destinations.

Brown advises interested riders to drop by Mt. Angel Telephone Company’s Customer Appreciation Day on Aug. 15.

“We’ll be bringing a bus there, so look for us,” he said.