A new schedule will begin on January 6th, 2020 and this gives us an opportunity to update some routes to address reported issues and make the system perform better overall.

Route 6 - Clear Lake / Junction Circle

Now that the Ash Street underpass is open, Route 6 will resume using Ash Street instead of detouring around it via Iles/Oberlin. Some slight changes to the time checks on the inbound portion of the schedule were also made to account for the difference in travel time.

Route 7 - West Washington

Route 7 travels to and from the west side of Springfield and downtown, providing connections both at the downtown transfer center and at White Oaks Mall. These connections must be reliable for them to be useful and the current version of the route is not as reliable as it could be. For comparison, here is a graph of the average on-time performance of Route 7 versus that of Route 3.

Daily On-Time Performance Averages

Though Route 7 sometimes reaches as high as the low to mid-90’s on some days, it’s much more variable - and thus less reliable - than other routes such as the 3. And since the 7 connects to other routes downtown and at the mall, this can create on-time issues that cascade through the rest of the system.

To remedy this, we will be removing a total of 19 stops on Route 7 that have been identified as having low ridership or as being close enough to another stop to warrant consolidation. This brings the average stop spacing of the route from 920 feet to 1,163 feet and allows the bus to reach higher speeds.

The map below shows the stops we will be removing in black, with the remaining stops in blue. Click here to open the map in a new tab/window.

There will also be some slight adjustments to the inbound time checks to ensure the bus does not waste any time getting downtown.

Route 902 - Southeast Side Night Service

The newly-opened Ash Street underpass will also allow the 902 to resume using Ash from 6th Street to MLK Drive inbound. No changes will be made to the timetable.

See a one-sheet flyer here.


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AuthorSMTD

Several streets downtown will be closed for the Route 66 Mother Road Festival being held this weekend so we will be relocating both the day and night transfer centers to 5th & Jackson. Here's a listing of the detour maps for each route:

Several routes will also have to make slightly different detours on Friday, September 22nd due to the parade, starting at 5:45 pm and lasting until the parade concludes. These can be seen on this map.


On Saturday, May13, 2017 at 6:00am, due to the 5K event downtown,
the transfer center will be located on the south side of Monroe (State Capitol side) between
2nd & College, returning to the regular transfer center at 5th & Capitol at 11:45am. Routes will
stage as follows:

  • Between College and Spring on Monroe:
    • 1 N. 5th
    • 2 N. 9th
    • 3 Grandview
    • 4 W. Jefferson
    • 5 N. Walnut
    • 7 W. Washington
    • 13 MacArthur/Westchester
    • 16 Bergen Park/Sand Hill
    • 18 Lawrence/Knox Knolls
  • Between Spring and 2nd Streets on Monroe:
    • 6 E. Cook
    • 8 1st/Highland
    • 9 M.L. King
    • 10 Southern View/Laketown
    • 11 UIS
    • 14 Wabash/Prairie Crossing
    • 15 So. 11th/UIS/LLC

As usual, buses will be in service on Veterans Day (Friday, November 9th) but will be running Saturday schedules which means some routes will run every hour instead of every half-hour. We have included this holiday service in our GTFS data so that supported navigation apps will be able to give you the correct information.

Additionally, the daytime transfer center will be moved one block south to 5th & Jackson during the Veterans Day parade, from approximately 8:15 AM to 11:45 AM. After the parade concludes the transfer center will be moved back to its normal location at 5th & Capitol


Several route changes are going into effect on July 1st, 2015. 

Eliminated Routes

  • Night Service 11:45 PM (Last) Trip - 10:45 PM will be the last trip on all Night Service routes. Buses will return to the Transfer Center at 11:45 PM, but will take passengers no further.
  • Historic Sites - Passengers can ride Route 1 (North 5th) and Route 5 (North Walnut).
  • Route 19 - Will be replaced with a morning supplemental route that departs the downtown Transfer Center at 7:20 AM and an afternoon supplemental that departs the Sangamon County Regional Office of Education (SCROE) at 4:30 PM. The schedules are as follows: 
Transfer Center A SCROE SoS IDOT
7:20 AM 7:35 AM 7:40 AM 7:50 AM

SCROE SoS IDOT Transfer Center A
4:30 PM 4:35 PM 4:45 PM 5:00 PM

Other passengers can ride the Route 6 (East Cook)Route 9 (MLK)Route 11 (UIS), or Route 15 (S. 11th / UIS / LLCC) buses either on or within two to four blocks of the current Route 19.

Combined School Supplemental Trippers

  • Add SHS (East Cook) Tripper to SHS (MLK / South 15th)
  • Add Laketown (SEHS) Tripper to Southern View (SEHS)
  • Add SEHS (Laketown) Tripper to (SEHS) Southern View

State Holiday Hours

Buses will run in Saturday Service format on the following holidays:

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 18th)
  • Lincoln's Birthday (February 12)
  • Washington's Birthday / Presidents Day (3rd Monday of February)
  • Veterans Day (November 11)

These and other planned service changes can be found on our Service Calendar.

The changes were the first recommendations of what SMTD staff plans to make an annual occurrence, utilizing analyses of passenger counts on each route and implementation of performance standards to produce the most efficient service possible for Springfield. That is not to say that routes will be eliminated every year. 

"No one enjoys eliminating routes," said Managing Director Frank Squires, "but the reality is that, by reducing these clear inefficiencies, we are now in a much better position to provide better service and passenger amenities moving forward. By constantly evaluating our service, we can make any necessary annual adjustments to keep us providing the best service possible with the resources available to us without too often inconveniencing our passengers, and we can more easily add service in the future if we’re operating at maximum efficiency." 

Other changes made by SMTD will be publicized at dates closer to when they will affect passengers, such as State Fair service closer to the opening of the Illinois State Fair, school supplemental route changes closer to the first day of school later this summer and reduced service hours on certain state holidays.