by Dennis Dalman
A bus ride will soon be just a phone call away in Sartell. The new Metro Bus on-demand service pilot program called ConneX will start in the city Wednesday, Jan. 2.
The pilot program is expected to last until June 30, 2019, at which time it will be evaluated for efficiency and success and possibly extended indefinitely.
ConneX works like this: Someone who needs a bus ride will call a Metro Bus number about an hour ahead of time to request a ride, and that person will be given a pick-up time when the bus will arrive. The bus will stop at the curbside nearest the pick-up address and/or requested destination. The pick-up times given to the caller will vary based on demand for a particular time of day. The pick-up number to call is 320-251-RIDE.
ConneX will replace fixed-route 32 in Sartell. Riders of ConneX will be able to get transfer rides out of Sartell via the buses that stop at Country Manor or Walmart in Epic Center in Sartell. The cost for a ride is $1.25, same as for the previous fixed-route service. Children 5 and under can ride free. Transfer tickets, which can be requested at time of pick-up, are valid for two hours from the time of issuance by the bus driver.
There will be two buses serving the ConneX service compared with just the one bus for former Route 32.
Another Metro Bus change starting in January is the other fixed-route service in Sartell (Route 31) which will be extended to serve the medical-campus area at Connecticut Avenue in southeast Sartell, as well as the CentraCare Health Plaza in St. Cloud, just across the road and to the south of the Sartell Medical Campus.
Riders using the ConneX service can transfer to the service after riding a fixed-route service by requesting a pick-up or drop-off after their fixed-route bus arrives at Country Manor or the Sartell Walmart. They can also transfer, if they wish, to any fixed-route service that stops at those two places. Metro Bus routes 21 and 22 are the Sauk Rapids area buses that also serve east Sartell and stop at Country Manor, said Berta Hartig, marketing and communications director for Metro Bus.
“ConneX is great for Sartell because that city was hard to serve with fixed-route buses,” she said. “There are all kinds of culs-de-sac in Sartell and developments all over that make a fixed route difficult. With this new service, people will be able to call and get to where they want to go.”
ConneX buses can accommodate service animals as well as wheelchairs. The service might also benefit some physically-challenged people who now use Metro Bus’s Dial-a-Ride. That is because some of them might be able to be mobile enough to get to the nearest curb rather than be picked up right at their doors. Dial-a-Ride service costs $2.50 so those who can manage to use ConneX would be able to save $1.25 per ride.
Hours of service for ConneX will be 6:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sunday.
Ride requests will be taken up to 15 minutes before the start of the service day and up until 15 minutes before the end of service.
The area within the surrounding line shows the ConneX curbside pick-up service area in Sartell. The new service, which is a six-month pilot program, will begin Jan. 2 in Sartell.
