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CARTA rolls out new bus routes, adds more services
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority launched Phase Two of its rebirth Jan.8, with nine new routes, two new services and 24 more buses.
The new routes will extend service to Charleston International Airport, Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island and will take passengers farther into West Ashley, James Island, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston.
With its Phase Two launch, CARTA increased its routes from 17 to 26 and its buses from 29 to 53.
The new “Flex-route” and late night services operate within designated zones. With both services, passengers call CARTA to make reservations for bus service. Smaller CARTA buses then pick up the passengers and transport them to the bus stop nearest their desired location.
Passengers can travel outside the designated zone by transferring to another CARTA route at a designated bus stop.
In addition to picking up customers with reservations, buses make a regularly scheduled stop along a fixed route. This enables passengers to board at the scheduled stop without a reservation and tell the driver where they want to go.
Flex-route services operate during the day in two zones—James Island and Long Point. The James Island zone covers nearly all of James Island, extending from Wapoo Creek to Signal Point Road and from the Charleston Harbor area to Riverland Road.
The Long Point zone covers the northern half of Mount Pleasant, from Highway 17 past Hamlin Road and down to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.
Late Night services operate from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. in four zones—the north area, from Park Circle to the U.S. Naval Reservation, and from the former Navy base to the North Charleston Coliseum; the entire Charleston peninsula; West Ashley, from the Interstate 526-Highway 61 area to the Stono River and from Bon Secours St. Francis Xavier Hospital to the bridges leading to downtown Charleston; and Mount Pleasant, from Long Point Road to the Old Village, and from Highway 17 past Hamlin Road and down to the new Ravenel bridge.
“We’ve listened to our riders and made a concerted effort to provide what they’d like to see more of, less of and changes to,” said Howard Chapman, CARTA executive director. “Our hope is that this phase of the re-launch, with a focus on providing routes that span the Greater Charleston area, reflects that input as much as funding allows.”
Until it received much-needed funding, $6.5 million in June from the 2004 passage of the half-cent sales tax, CARTA had spent more than 1 1/2 years operating at 25% capacity due to budget cuts. The number of bus routes got slashed; the number of operational buses reduced.
The cash infusion sparked CARTA’s first recovery phase, during which the authority increased its bus routes from seven to 17 and its operational buses from nine to 29.
CARTA also restored previously cut services, installed new bus stop signs, offered new easier to use maps in Spanish as well as English and began a new marketing and advertising campaign to get traditional riders to re-board the buses.
An additional $9 million of half-cent sales tax funding fueled CARTA’s Phase Two resurgence, which itself is comprised of two phases: the one begun Jan. 8 and another slated for this spring, in which express routes and park-and-ride services will begin.
The spring phase will also include 15 buses the authority purchased from a San Francisco supplier for a total of $350,000. The buses are 10 years old and have three to five years of service left.
All told, CARTA will have 68 operating buses.
Since June, CARTA has been rebounding from a devastating blow dealt by the state Supreme Court, which, in 2002, overturned the half-cent sales tax referendum geared to fund not only CARTA, but also road improvement projects and the preservation and creation of parks and green spaces.
Even though Charleston County voters passed the referendum, the court sided with sales tax opponents who challenged the referendum’s passage, claiming the ballot had biased language.
When the half-cent sales tax referendum re-emerged in 2004, Charleston County voters passed it by a 59% to 41% margin. The court let the passage stand.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer at the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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