Knox County Transit adds southern route, modifies Coshocton Express & Round Hill

MOUNT VERNON — Transit Director Bethany Celmar said changes are in the works for the free routes Knox County Transit offers after December’s six-month review.

Changes become effective Feb. 17.

“We wanted to make changes and utilize what we have the best way possible,” Celmar told county commissioners Thursday.

A significant change for all the routes is a new transfer location.

The current transfer station is at KCT’s new building on West Chestnut Street. However, the agency will begin construction on the transit hub later this year, and the site will be unsafe for riders.

An existing bus shelter at 308 S. Gay St. is the new transfer point. The shelter is on the corner of Howard and Gay streets, across from the Wright Center.

Celmar said the new transfer site is easier to access from Coshocton Avenue.

“We want to make sure that we are not only on time, but also able to cover as much ground as possible and not be waiting in traffic, at lights, and all of that,” she said.

KCT will keep the Round Hill Route and Coshocton Express.

“Those were both very, very strong routes, and had high ridership,” she said. “We are changing a few of the stops.”

The Coshocton Express still includes Walmart and Kroger but drops the Dollar Tree stop since riders did not utilize it much.

Round Hill Route

On the Round Hill Route, KCT will drop the Hawthorne Apartments, Hiawatha Senior Village, and Kroger stops.

Revive Church, a heavily used stop, will remain.

New stops include Town Center on North Sandusky Street (McDonald’s/Shell station) and Hiawatha Pool.

Celmar said that Hiawatha pool was added to attract more riders in the Beech Street-Sychar Road area.

“We have a lot of riders in the JJ Ashburn apartments that are on Sychar Road, and that wasn’t a stop. So if we stop at Hiawatha Pool, they could walk to that,” she explained.

“We’re also hoping that’s accessible to Hiawatha Senior Village.”

Progress Loop: A new southern route

The other significant change is that KCT will launch a new route south of the river.

Progress Loop will begin on Columbus Road and incorporate the industrial park.

“We have a lot of ridership that goes to and from work, so we’re hoping that will help us as we’re coordinating that. You can get from the north end and then get to the south,” Celmar said.

Celmar said Progress Loop is a pilot program to gauge ridership links to the downtown.

All of the routes are fare-free for another six months. Celmar said that at that time, the agency will re-evaluate its position.

“With these routes you will have to get on at a stop. We don’t have enough time to deviate; we just had too many riders,” she said.

Yellow Jacket Express

Knox County Transit discontinued the Yellow Jacket Express on the west and north side due to “very, very low ridership.”

It will also eliminate a secondary route that serves only the health department on Upper Gilchrist and Knox Community Hospital.

“Surprisingly, that was not utilized a lot either,” Celmar said.

“One of our goals and what we work for is access to health care; we want to make sure people can get there.”

However, riders on the Coshocton Express can request to be taken to the hospital.

“We’ll get you there, but we didn’t have enough ridership to really designate a stop where we were stopping every half hour. That’s just not how the riders utilized it,” Celmar said.

KCT operates its on-demand response from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Between 5 and 7 a.m. is primarily workforce trips.

The free-fare routes run from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Drivers take a lunch break between 11 and noon.

The Night Bus runs until 1 a.m.

Riders can find routes and schedules on the transit agency’s Facebook page, website, and on the buses. Celmar said installing information kiosks at the bus stops has proven difficult.

Transit scam

Celmar said the agency recently had several instances where individuals imitated the transit company and tried to pick up people.

“We had reports from three different riders on two different days that somebody had pulled up at their residence. It was at the time that their ride was booked with us, and they said, ‘I’m your ride, get in,’” she said.

“Please don’t get in a car that’s not marked. All of our buses will be marked with Knox County Transit.”

KCT only uses buses, not cars. Most buses have the new blue wrapping; however, a few still have the white.

Celmar said the agency has upgraded its security to prevent someone from gaining access to schedules.

She noted that similar incidents have allegedly occurred in Newark.

West Chestnut transit hub

The commissioners awarded the bid to convert the warehouse in Heartland Commerce Park into a transit hub to Modern Builders on Thursday morning.

Modern Builders submitted a bid of $2,574,508. Three other companies also submitted bids:

•Adena Corp: $2,781,000

•Shrock Construction: $2,967,000

•ECS Builders: $2,694,496

The engineer’s estimate was $2.5 million.

County Administrator Jason Booth said it will take several weeks to finalize vendor contracts and schedule a preconstruction meeting to establish timelines.

He expects KCT to move into the new facility by the end of the year.