Bus rapid transit was introduced in Madison in the fall, following a complete redesign of the system’s routes. About three months in, transit officials say the transition is going well and more changes are coming next year.
The new system includes buses riders can board from any door, new stations and a new fare payment system. A new bus rapid transit route, or BRT, was launched in September.
Metro Transit chief development officer Mick Rusch said it’s the biggest overhaul to the system since the ’90s.
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“We redesigned all of our service last summer to get ready for bus rapid transit, and then we got all the routes ready, and we implemented all the infrastructure this year, and we also rolled out all of our electric buses, our new fare technology, all of that all at once,” he said.
Of all the changes, Rusch said the new payment system “has taken us the longest to get people acclimated to.”
Before the overhaul, buses used magnetic stripe swipe cards. They stopped selling those in September, Rusch said, replacing them with pre-loadable, tap-to-pay fare cards.
But overall, Rusch said the new system is working well. While they don’t yet have official ridership data, they are anecdotally seeing “full buses.”
“We’re seeing a lot of people riding during the week, we’re just seeing a lot of people tapping their cards,” Rusch said.
Getting ready to board the BRT on University Ave., Terry Richardson said he mostly likes the new system. But, he said there is a downside to the rapid service.
“It moves fast, so that’s a good thing,” he said. “But if you’re not there, if you’re not right there, then it’s gonna leave you.”
Rusch said more changes are coming in 2025, including a system where riders will be able to tap a credit card or phone to pay on any bus, which will be implemented in April or May.
“You don’t even have to mess around with getting a fare card,” he said. “You can just use your credit card to board the bus.”
Rusch said Metro will also introduce hourly service to the city of Monona in March on route 38. And, they’ll also start doing outreach on adding a north-south BRT route. While they haven’t yet secured funding for that project, they hope it will come to fruition in two or three years.
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