Gwinnett bus ridership rises with gas woes

As gas lines continued in Gwinnett, transit buses to downtown Atlanta saw a spike in ridership.

Passenger figures for Monday will not be complete until Tuesday night, but Phil Boyd, director of Gwinnett County Transit, said “We’re experiencing record loads due to the gas shortage.”

Gwinnett County operates three morning transit routes to downtown Atlanta Monday through Friday. It also contracts with the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to operate three other routes into Atlanta.

Bill Reynolds of Lilburn has seen ridership grow from 70 percent capacity to overcrowded in the two years he has been taking the express transit from the Indian Trail park-and-ride lot in Norcross.

“When I first started riding, there were empty seats all the time,” Reynolds said. “It was riding maybe 75 percent full. But over the last six to eight months it’s been getting increasingly more and more full.”

Reynolds said that over the past several months, he has seen the 7:30 a.m. bus packed many times with as many as 12-14 people standing. It’s a condition he has passed along to transit officials.

“It’s not like we’re complaining because the service isn’t good enough,” he said. “We’re happy that the service is there. We just want to make people aware that there are a lot more people using it.”

Boyd said he knows the situation. The county this month approved purchase of 35 new motorcoach buses. Each would accommodate up to 20 more passengers than the current models. But those buses aren’t expected to be delivered until spring, he said.

“It was a record day today, I’m sure,” Boyd said. “All of our drivers were reporting standees, and that’s of course just coming from the people worried about being able to get gasoline.”

William Mecke, communications director for the Georgia Regional Transportation Authortity, said operations personnel did not report a surge in ridership numbers on its Xpress buses Monday. But, he added, that buses along the 27 routes the agency operates in 12 metro counties have been filling up all year.

“It was pretty normal this morning,” Mecke said. “Now, pretty normal for us is just about full.”

Mecke said average daily boardings grew by almost 200 from July to August, and he expects September numbers to be higher yet.

Robert Quigley, communications director for Cobb County, said there were no overcrowded buses there Monday, but that ridership has been trending upward.