Subject: Cities plan bus-line links to light rail Date: Friday, July 27, 2007 10:44 PM Cities plan bus-line links to light rail Kerry Fehr-Snyder The Arizona Republic Jul. 26, 2007 02:24 PM Several Southeast Valley cities plan to tweak their bus routes and schedules while building park-and-ride lots to attract passengers to light-rail line stations opening late next year. Mesa, Tempe and Chandler are making the adjustments as a way to extend the reach of the $1.4billion, 20-mile light-rail line. Tempe Tempe will modify several of its bus routes to time them with the light-rail system's arrivals and departures. "We're definitely going to need to modify our routes," said Sue Taaffe, a Tempe spokeswoman. One of its most popular bus lines, Route 81, runs north-south on McClintock Drive before turning west on University Drive to head to downtown Tempe. But after the light-rail line opens in December 2008, Tempe will reroute the bus line to turn west on Apache Boulevard, where passengers can pick up light rail at its McClintock/Apache station. Route 1 along Washington Street will be removed from the bus route in Tempe because it follows a similar path being built for the light-rail line. Similarly, the Red Line that takes passengers from Apache Boulevard to Sky Harbor International Airport will change to a Tempe-only route because riders will be able to take light rail instead. Tempe also plans to coordinate the service provided by its three new Orbit neighborhood circulator buses and its two modified Orbit routes to tie into the light rail schedule, Taaffe said. In addition, it is building three park-and-ride lots along the city's 5.5-mile portion of the line. The lots are near three of its light-rail stations. There will be 700 parking spaces at its Price Road station, 300 spaces at its McClintock Road station and 100 spaces at its Dorsey Lane station between McClintock and Rural roads. Mesa Mesa will introduce rapid-transit service from Superstition Springs Mall to its Sycamore Street light-rail station, east of Dobson Road. The service, scheduled to begin in December 2008, will take passengers north-south along Power Road from the mall near U.S. 60 and then east-west on Main Street to the Sycamore Street station. That station is the end of the line for the eastern portion of the light-rail system. "We really see this as a rubber-tire extension of the light rail," said Mike James, Mesa's deputy transportation director. The new route is an express service that will stop about every mile compared with standard bus routes that stop every quarter mile or more often. The rapid bus transit service, which is being paid for with Proposition 400 sales tax money, will feature more stylized buses that set them apart from standard city buses. In addition, the Sycamore Transit Center will feature electronic signs telling passengers when the next rapid-transit bus is coming so that riders can plan trips to and from the light-rail line. Mesa also is building a dedicated park-and-ride lot with more than 200 spaces for passengers coming from the eastern part of the city. It has plans to build other park-and-ride lots at Power Road and Loop 202 and Gilbert Road and Loop 202 in the future. Chandler Mesa also is planning a second rapid-transit bus line in cooperation with Chandler. It would run along Arizona Avenue/Country Club Drive and bring passengers from as far south as the a park-and-ride lot to be built at Tumbleweed Park at Germann Road and Arizona Avenue in Chandler, which will be operating then, north to the Sycamore light-rail station. The route would begin about two years after light rail begins service in 2008, James said. Susan Tierney, spokeswoman for Valley Metro, which operates the system under the name Metro, said the park-and-ride lots and local bus service are key to making light rail a success. "Basically we look at the system as being complementary," she said of the extended bus routes. "You can't have light rail without bus. You have to have a system that gets people to the light rail system efficiently." _____