Charlottesville Area Transit service changes go into effect on November 9

CAT also releases public dashboard to help people track system performance

Charlottesville Area Transit is finally proceeding with some of the route changes that have been known to the public since the spring of 2021.

The transit agency is doubling frequency on two routes that travel between downtown Charlottesville and the Willoughby Shopping Center. 

“Route 4 currently has the second-lowest on-time performance in CAT’s system, and this frequency adjustment will help address those issues by making buses run more regularly,” reads the announcement.

Additional service will also be scheduled for Route 6, which travels through Fifeville and the Ridge Street neighborhood. The changes are part of a “transit strategic plan” approved by City Council earlier this year.

The plan states that Route 6 will be altered in the future so that it no longer travels between the Willoughby Shopping Center and the University of Virginia Medical Center along Prospect Avenue. That is not happening at this time, as it requires a future change that will see Route 8 extended to Willoughby Shopping Center. CAT Director Garland Williams said the wrong information was initially released. (view the plan)

“We put out a press release about some improvements that we’re going to be making to the Route 4 and the Route 6,” Williams said. “The Route 6 has a line in it that says we were going to improve it, basically going to 30 minutes service, which we are. It’s an hour service now, but it had a line in the press release that says we were moving service to the hospital. That is not correct. So we’re going to make sure everybody is aware of that. We are not removing service on the route six to the hospital.”

No map was provided as part of the announcement, but the bottom of a webpage announcing the changes includes a document called “Fixed Route Schedule Book October Service Changes.” This continues to show Route 6 service on Prospect Avenue from Willoughby to Pinn Hall at the UVA Medical Center. (go see for yourself)

The changes had originally been scheduled for October 26 but have been delayed until November 9. They include a modification of Route 11 to serve the Center at Belvedere. 

There are several changes listed in the transit strategic plan as happening in the first phase that are not addressed at this time. They include a restoration of Sunday service on the Downtown trolley-style bus, a route that goes to Fashion Square Mall, and one that travels to 5th Street Station. 

CAT’s new service will also create a new schedule for almost every route and new timepoints will be installed for more routes. Drivers will now get a ten-minute break every eight hour shift per the contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union. 

Williams made those comments during a presentation on a new public dashboard on how well CAT routes are performing. 

“It’s a culmination of a promise that we made to City Council and to this region to be much more transparent in how CAT operates,” said Garland Williams. (view the dashboard)

The city has paid the firm Nelson Nygaard to create the public dashboard using data collected by automatic passenger counters installed on each vehicle. The data on the dashboard currently is limited to January 24 through May 24 of this year. 

“They are filtering the information and making sure that it is in a usable form so everybody can see the analysis behind the scenes,” Williams said. 

Using the map function, people can take a look and see the average for how many people get off and on at each stop. 

There is also information on how each route performs. For instance, the Route 6 was on time 44.4 percent of the time, early 47.2 percent of the time, and late 8.4 percent of the time. Williams said that is not acceptable. 

“From a transit agency point of view, that is horrible,” Williams said. “Most transit agencies want to be in the high nineties. If you’re in the seventies, that’s kind of considered reasonable and acceptable, but you need to be working on trying to improve that.” 

Williams said service changes will be made to try to address the various issues such as adding frequency. Additional time points will be added to stop routes from passing by stops before they are scheduled. 

“Early is not good,” Williams said. “That means people have missed our service.” 

CAT’s new schedules are expected to go into effect on November 9 and every single route will be different as the agency makes a series of adjustments. 

“When you may have started early in the morning on the Route 6 or the Route 5, the times may have adjusted because we needed to,” Williams said.   

But don’t get too used to any one schedule. Williams said adjustments will be made every three to four months.  

Williams said buses will also no longer queue up at the Downtown Transit Center all at once but will be staggered with departure times at every 15 minutes.   

The increase to 30 minute frequencies on Route 6 was paid for by $1 million from the city’s surplus for Fiscal Year 2022. 

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