Three TARTA bus routes are proposed to serve the Levis Commons shopping, office, and residential complex in Perrysburg, the commercial portion of which is to open in late October.
The service plan that Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority planners presented to the agency's board of trustees yesterday morning will provide buses every 35 minutes between 6 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to the $250 million development at Dixie Highway and Roachton Road.
But when the Levis Commons buses start running Aug. 29, same-bus service to Southwyck Shopping Center from Rossford, Point Place, and North Toledo will be eliminated.
Riders from those areas who took that bus directly to Southwyck will have to transfer to another bus.
"There may be some inconvenience for some people with the transfers at the University of Toledo," planning director William Kelly said, referring to the new southern terminus for the No. 3 Crosstown route. "But there will be an overall benefit from the extension of service farther than we've gone before."
Along with the south end of what is now the Crosstown route, the Perrysburg-South-wyck portion of the No. 10S Rossford-Perrysburg-Maumee bus will be covered by a new No. 43 route running between UT and Levis Commons.
The No. 10S will be redesignated as the 10L and go to Levis Commons, too.
The third route serving the complex will be the Perrysburg Call-A-Ride, which operates from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily. The No. 43 and No. 10L are scheduled to quit at 7:30 p.m. each day, with the No. 43 running every 40 minutes and the No. 10L running every 35 minutes.
A hearing concerning the proposed route changes is scheduled for noon today at TARTA's general offices, 1127 West Central Ave.
The tentative start date for Levis Commons service coincides with the transit authority's normal schedule revision at the start of the school year.
The development isn't scheduled to open for business until Oct. 26, but Mr. Kelly said the lead time will create an opportunity to iron out any bugs from the revised bus routes. TARTA officials expect the buses will appeal as much to Levis Commons workers as they will to shoppers, and worker training typically starts before stores open.
The availability of public transportation for workers has been a selling point that the project's developer has used to attract merchants, Mr. Kelly noted.
If there is sufficient rider demand, he said, the 7:30 p.m. cutoff for the Nos. 10L and 43 routes will be revisited, as will the 9 p.m. end for Call-A-Ride service. The Maumee Call-A-Ride recently was extended past 9 p.m. to serve workers at that city's United Parcel Service sorting facility.
The University of Toledo's transportation center was chosen as a connecting point between the shortened No. 3 Crosstown and the new No. 43 route because shelter is available there, Mr. Kelly said. The longest scheduled wait there should be 15 minutes, with five minutes more typical, he said.
Passengers who now use the No. 10S to travel between Rossford and Southwyck will be able to transfer at Levis Commons.
TARTA expects the service changes to reduce bus operating hours by about eight hours per week, primarily because the shortened Crosstown route will be less vulnerable to traffic delays and thus have a tighter schedule, Mr. Kelly said.
First Published August 6, 2004, 11:20 a.m.
