Metro Transit, formerly Madison Metro, operates bus services throughout the City of Madison, Wisconsin, United States and several of its suburbs, including Middleton, Fitchburg, Maple Bluff, Shorewood Hills, Sun Prairie, and Verona.[2] System-wide, fixed route ridership was 9,514,620 in 2023.[3] Metro Transit also provides supplemental transit services to Madison's high schools. These routes have been designed to provide additional services during peak school times.[4] Metro Transit also serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, Eagle Heights University apartments, and some off-campus residential areas, via routes 80, 81, 82, and 84. These routes are free of charge for UW students and faculty.[5]
Metro also connects with suburban mass transit services, such as the Monona Lift/Monona Express.[6][7]
History
Bus service in Madison was originally owned by a private company. It was established in 1910 to serve parts of Madison that weren't served by streetcars. In 1928, an ice storm heavily damaged the streetcar lines. The bus company replaced the streetcar lines with buses. After the company's revenues fell and the quality of service declined in the 1960s, the city agreed to purchase the Madison Bus Company, with the acquisition taking effect on May 1, 1970.[8]
Metro Transit's routes were dramatically overhauled on July 19, 1998. Previously, all routes had passed through Capitol Square, making downtown the only interchange point for cross-town travel. The 1998 changes redesigned the entire network around four newly created "transfer points" on the north, east, south, and west sides of the city. The number of routes nearly doubled, from 23 to 43. Additionally, while the old routes had been indicated with letters, the new routes were given numbers to illustrate that they had no connection to the previous network.[9] This transfer point system had been proposed as early as 1970, while the city was in the process of acquiring the bus company, by city council candidate Audrey Parkinson.[10]
In 2019, Metro Transit updated its logo and bus look. The same year, several middle schools switched to yellow buses.[citation needed]
In 2023, the route network was overhauled to one with fewer routes and more frequent service. The newly redesigned network was launched on June 11, 2023. Most of the new routes are lettered rather than numbered.[11] The north, east, and west transfer points were eliminated from the network. The south transfer point is still used and will eventually be replaced with standard streetside bus shelters and the transfer point will be redeveloped. The change has had a mixed reception; some have praised the redesign for more frequent service with fewer transfers, while others have criticized the redesign for eliminating service where the elderly, disabled, and low-income populations used to be able to ride the bus.[12][13]
The same summer, the school routes received a handful of updates. Previously the school routes were lettered, but the routes are now numbered, each route has a triple-digit number. For the first time, supplemental school service was provided to Capital High, which had just moved into the former Hoyt School building. The remaining middle schools switched to yellow buses as part of recent route changes.[14]
In December 2023 the Monona city council voted to join the Metro Transit network with a future branch of the C route slated to serve the suburb as well as opening stops along the existing G and L routes that currently operate express through Monona, this will replace the existing Monona Express commuter service.[15][16]
On September 22, 2024, Metro Transit launched its first bus rapid transit line, Rapid Route A, to replace a core east–west bus route. Various city and regional governments had studied bus rapid transit and other high-capacity systems, including light rail, to serve the Madison area as early as the 1980s, but did not begin formal planning of a bus rapid transit system until 2011.[17]
Route network
The transit network focuses on point-to-point service with some routes having different destinations but sharing the same core segments. Many routes serve downtown Madison and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where transit usage is high.[citation needed]
A Metro bus with an older livery near Capitol Square
The vast majority of service updates reflected in this section went into effect in June 2023. Significant changes include the restructuring of the main route network, including the discontinuation of the previous transfer point system, and the reintroduction of lettered routes replacing the previous numbering system. Although a small amount of weekday commuter routes remain numbered for administrative reasons.[18] The University of Wisconsin circulator network was largely unaffected by the changes and retain its previous numbers/ routes.[19][20]
Bus rapid transit
In the early 2020s, Metro Transit began design and construction of a bus rapid transit system that offers faster and more frequent service.[21] The two BRT lines have buses that run every 5 to 15 minutes during weekday hours. The first line is Rapid Route A, an east–west line that replaced Route A on September 22, 2024.[22] It cost $195 million to construct, with a majority of funds from a federal grant, and includes articulated buses, center-running bus lanes and stations.[23] A north–south line will replace Route B in 2028.[24][25]
Regular routes
All routes in the table below run daily with varying service levels given the time/day. For example, route B runs every 15 minutes on weekdays, but every 30 minutes during evenings and weekends.[26]
^ Sections of roads with more than two concurrent routes are generally omitted for conciseness.
^ Sections of roads with more than two concurrent routes are generally omitted for conciseness.
Sun Prairie circulator service
Metro Transit provides two local bus routes within the City of Sun Prairie. Both routes run on a looping circulator system beginning and ending at the Sun Prairie Park and Ride, where it is possible to transfer to Route A into the city of Madison and connect with the rest of the Metro system. Route S runs seven days a week including holidays with 60 minute headways and route W operates on weekdays only with 30 minute headways. Route W previously interlined with the mainline east-west Route A at the Park & Ride, allowing for a single seat ride from Sun Prairie to downtown Madison, campus and points west, this ended with the launch of the Rapid A BRT service.[27][28]
Route
Terminal
Major Streets
Notes
S
Sun Prairie Park & Ride (counterclockwise loop)
O'Keefe Ave, Main St, Bristol St, Tower Dr, Windsor St, Grand Ave, Reiner Rd
W
Sun Prairie Park & Ride (clockwise loop)
O'Keefe Ave, Main St, Bristol St, Bird St, US 151 (no stops), Grand Ave, Reiner Rd
Weekdays only
UW–Madison campus buses
All UW campus routes are fare free to students, faculty, and staff. Operating costs are paid by Associated Students of Madison, UW Transportation Services, and University Housing. When UW–Madison is not in session, service is reduced on routes 80 and 84 and routes 81 and 82 do not run.[29]
^"Metro Transit". www.cityofmadison.com. August 18, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
^Staff (2018). "2018 Annual Report"(PDF). Metro Transit. City of Madison, WI. Archived(PDF) from the original on March 27, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
^"UW Service Calendar". Metro Transit. March 6, 2019. Archived from the original on December 19, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
^Staff (2015). "METRO HYBRID BUSES". Metro Transit. City of Madison, WI. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
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