Starting Aug. 1, Mountain Lynx Transit’s routes and schedules for its blue and red loops in Galax will change at the same time the transit’s office will move to the Crossroads Institute from its current office on Oldtown Street.
“Because of this office relocation, we are no longer able to have a bus stop on Oldtown Street, so we had to rethink our existing routes and schedules,” said Melanie Fleenor, the transit’s director of transportation. “We took this necessary change as an opportunity to improve the routes in order to provide better service for our riders.”
The new location offers a conference room, more space and more parking for buses.
The route changes were made after public input was sought and an open house was held.
In Galax, Mountain Lynx runs two route loops from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The red loop serves the downtown area while the blue loop serves areas north of Stuart Drive. Both routes provide service to Food City and Walmart.
The changes to the routes include shortening the red loop slightly because the bus was traveling farther south than needed, which will allow the red loop bus to better maintain its posted schedule, according to Fleenor. Also, the stop at the Dollar General on the southern end of town was removed, while stops were added at the Crossroads Institute, farmers market and Twin County Regional Hospital.
The blue loop was extended a little farther east, which enables the transit service to reach a larger geographic area and provides a safer route, with the bus making more right turns as opposed to left turns, she said.
From Aug. 1 through Oct. 31, the transit service will implement an additional demand-response bus route in Galax from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Ridership in Galax is consistently high, which can be busy and overwhelming for drivers and dispatchers, so Mountain Lynx is running the additional vehicle temporarily to track ridership and determine if the change should be permanent, Fleenor said.
Mountain Lynx, which is a free service, is the transportation arm of the District Three Governmental Cooperative. It has been providing transit service in Galax since the early 1990s and also serves Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe counties, the towns of Abingdon, Marion and Wytheville, and the city of Bristol.
