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Jefferson County Introduces Flex Route Service
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Photo via Jefferson County Community Partnership
Since 2007, the Transportation Solutions Committee of Jefferson County, MO has been creating public and private partnerships to introduce the JeffCo Express, a public transit solution for the communities of DeSoto, Hillsboro, Festus and Arnold.
The bus has 16 seats and can accomodate two wheelchairs. Funding has been secured for three years through MODOT’s New Freedom Project to help individuals with disabilities meet their transportation needs, including education, employment and health services. A one-way ticket is $2 for the general public; $1 for disabled passengers or those 65 and older, with multi-ride passes available.
The new service uses a deviated, or flex, route to transport passengers. A flex route allows the driver to deviate off the designated route to pick up or drop off individual passengers that make advance reservations. According to the Transportation Solution Committee, as long as a person with a disability lives within a one mile radius of a major designated stop and calls within 24 hours, the bus will come to their home to pick them up, and deliver to any requested destination within one mile of major designated stop. Therefore, the service area of the route is greatly widened, and more convenient for riders. All route and timetable info for the JeffCo Express is available on their website.
Deviated or flex routes are a great solution for rural or less dense areas, and provide both riders and service agencies with a needed amount of flexibility. Congratulations to all involved in the JeffCo Express Project, and we wish JeffCo passengers happy and safe travels. If you have any pictures or experiences seeing or riding the JeffCo Express, send them to blog@nextstopstl.org.
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Courtney, have any Metro planners or JeffCo planners thought about trying to connect the 2 systems? I imagine it would only be in the event of Prop M passing, but it could connect with the I-55 express.
I don’t know if there have been any formal discussions (there are many whatifs, contingent on securing additional funding, figuring out demand for the service, etc.) but I imagine if there is a will and a means to fund, there is a way. Prior to the March 2009 service reductions, the I-55 Express did go out to the Richardson Rd. Park-N-Ride lot in Arnold (fare for this included an extra $1 A.M. surcharge). The JeffCo Express does have several stops in Arnold, so theoretically a connection is possible.
I would love to see such a great enhancement to the system with a connection with the Lindbergh and the Oakville line.
One big impediment to connecting the two systems are separate funding sources – Jefferson County residents don’t pay the same sales taxes that taxpayers in St. Louis city and county do – you get what you pay for. That said, I’m a big advocate at looking at this type of service for many parts of St. Louis County, instead of running fixed-route service in areas that really don’t justify that level of service.
The other nit I have to pick is the name – Deviated Service?! – come on, that makes about much sense as PERC at Work. Get creative with the naming, to make it much more marketable and memorable. Examples I can throw out include the Hop, Skip, Jump, Dash and Bound, in Boulder, the Ranch Rider in Highlands Ranch, the Summit Stage in Summit County (all in Colorado), the Lynx in Orlando and the Duece double decker bus on the Las Vegas strip. Heck, even “Hoosier Hauler” would be a better choice than “Deviated Route System”.