Service Changes

Valley Regional Transit (VRT) will implement service changes to ValleyRide bus service beginning Saturday, May 1.

The changes involve timing modifications to 11 ValleyRide bus routes. Ten of the affected routes provide fixed-line service in Boise and Garden City, and one provides intercountry service between Nampa, Meridian and Boise. The timing changes are designed to improve on-time performance.

Here are links to the new timing schedules:

Route 1 Harris Ranch via Parkcenter
Route 2 Broadway
Route 3 Vista
Route 5 Emerald
Route 6 Orchard
Routes 7A/7B Fairview
Route 9 State Street
Route 12 Maple Grove
Route 29 Overland
Route 42 Happy Day to Towne Square Mall

VRT is working with its funding partners to identify what service changes may take place during fiscal year 2022 (which runs from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022).

More information about the potential changes will be made available to the public for comment as soon as possible.

Valley Regional Transit (VRT) worked towards improving service in Ada and Canyon County in 2020. Our goal with these changes was to maximize the effectiveness of existing transit resources and connect more people to more places more often. Public transportation is important to the future of Ada County communities and there is public support for and interest in transit. The public wants more transit service during the commute period, in the evening, and on weekends. Transit is viewed as a benefit to employees.

The changes were implemented in two stages:

• On October 1, 2020, all VRT bus routes in Boise/Garden City and intercounty routes had new schedule times. Changes to each route can be accessed by scrolling down. We also began providing new service to the city of Eagle via the #9 State Street.
• On October 5, 2020, the existing fixed-route service in Nampa/Caldwell switched to a new on-demand service, VRT OnDemand. Routes 51, 52 and 55 were eliminated. You can now schedule a ride between any two bus stops with the on-demand service. The new bus service is named 150 VRT OnDemand.

On-time Performance

We wanted to improve on-time performance by reducing the number of time points to roughly 10-minute intervals. All routes have timing adjustments.

New Schedules

This included streamlining schedule design and highlighting the destinations accessible by each route to improve route information for passengers.

Summary of Changes

All ValleyRide bus routes in Boise/Garden City and intercounty routes had new schedule times beginning October 1, 2020. You can access the new timings for each route below:

Boise/Garden City routes:

Inter County Routes

Route 40 Nampa/Meridian Express
Route 42 Happy Day Transit Center/Towne Square Mall
Route 43 Caldwell Express
Route 45 Boise State/CWI Express

Revenue and ridership in Canyon County have not kept up with cost or performance expectations. Attempts to adjust service levels and routes within those resources continue to lead to low quality services and continuing poor system performance. Accordingly, VRT staff evaluated Canyon County local services to determine how those services could be redesigned to be more productive within the limited resources currently available.

VRT researched and evaluated innovative approaches to transit and determined an on-demand transit system has a high probability of achieving the desired results for the services within the existing financial constraints.

VRT staff expects to build new ridership contracts and/or funding partnerships with the expanded service area. Staff also expects to see increased efficiencies and higher ridership revenue over the term of the on-demand pilot term. If this pilot is successful, it will become the model for on demand transit within other VRT service areas.

We closed down routes 51, 52 and 55 and moved from a fixed-route system to an on-demand service in Nampa and Caldwell.