Iowa City Today

Iowa City Transit is excited to announce a variety of transit service improvements to provide faster, more frequent, and more reliable transit service to the Iowa City area.  These changes will coincide with the standard summer transit service changes beginning Monday, May 15, 2023.

The changes include earlier start times on eight Iowa City Transit routes, faster and more frequent bus service on the 9 – Towncrest and 2 – Court Street routes, and route realignments and bus stops changes on the 7 – North Dodge. As is customary each year, the 4 – Downtown Shuttle and the 3 – Eastside Loop will also be paused for the summer session.

Earlier start times

To help get riders to their destinations on time, eight Iowa City Transit routes will start earlier each morning, with first pick-ups around 6 a.m. on weekdays. Impacted routes include:

• 1 - South Iowa City, starts at 6:02 a.m. at Highway 6 and Heinz Road (Stop 7126)
• 2 - Court Street, starts at 5:50 a.m. at Court Street and First Avenue (7311)
• 5 - Lower Muscatine/Kirkwood, starts at 5:53 a.m. at Fairmeadows Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard (8232)
• 6 – Peninsula, starts at 6:15 a.m. from the Downtown Interchange
• 7 – North Dodge, starts at 6 a.m. from the Downtown Interchange
• 9 – Towncrest, starts at 5:49 a.m. from Muscatine Avenue / Wade Street (7258)
• 11 –  Rochester, starts at 5:53 a.m. at Rochester Avenue and Post Road due to the Rochester detour beginning May 10, with 6:15 a.m. launch from Downtown Interchange
• 13 – South Gilbert, starts at 6:45 a.m. from Downtown Interchange.

More frequent buses on 9 –Towncrest and 2 –Court Street routes

The 9 - Towncrest and 2 - Court Street routes will see significant bus service frequency and reliability improvements as they transition from service every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes during the day. Bus service will improve from every hour to every 40 minutes on evenings and Saturdays.

These routes will now be paired together with the 5 - Lower Muscatine/Kirkwood route, which already provides 20-minute service during the day and 40-minute service on evenings and Saturdays. The pairing is designed to alleviate on-time performance issues on the 2 and 9 routes, making it easier to transfer to other routes and help riders to their destinations on time. 

The 2 – Court Street and the 9 – Towncrest buses will continue to depart at the Downtown Interchange on the south side. The 5 – Lower Muscatine/Kirkwood will also maintain its current departure location on the north side. The 2 – Court Street will no longer service the Seamans Center stop across from the University Main Library (Stop 1051), however, the 9 – Towncrest route will continue to service this stop.

Route and timing changes to 7 – North Dodge

The 7 – North Dodge route will have two major route alignment changes and several bus stop adjustments. The route changes will be in effect for all daily trips.  

North of Interstate 80, the NCS Pearson bus stops (7521 and 7522) will be decommissioned and new bus stops will be established to serve the east side of Northgate Park at the Highlander Hotel (stop 9102) and on Highlander Place (9101 and 9102).

South of Interstate 80, Iowa City Transit will no longer directly serve the ACT campus (stops 7513 and 7514). The 7 – North Dodge route will instead provide service on Scott Boulevard between Dodge Street and 1st Avenue.  New bus stops will be established on Scott Boulevard near Oaknoll East (8282) and at the intersection with North Dubuque Road (9100).

There will no longer be special trips; every stop will be served on every trip. 

Additionally, the 7 – North Dodge “off-peak” departure time from Downtown will change to 30 minutes past the hour from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. For updated bus arrival and departure times, please see the new 7 – North Dodge bus schedule.

Other changes

The 11 - Rochester route will return to its 15 and 45 minute departure times from the Downtown Interchange instead of service at the top of the hour and every 30 minutes. Off-setting the Rochester and North Dodge routes by 15 minutes will ensure better coverage and frequency to the near north side and east side areas of Iowa City. The 12 - Highway 1 route will see minor time changes outbound between Wal-Mart and Fairway.

As is customary each summer, the 4 – Downtown Shuttle will not operate  beginning Saturday, May 13, 2023. Service will resume again on Monday, August 14. The 3 – Eastside Loop will not operate while the Iowa City Community School District is not in session, beginning June 7 and resuming Wednesday, August 23.

For more information

For predicted bus arrival times, to locate your bus in real time, and to receive real-time service alerts for your favorite routes and stops, download the Transit app for your smartphone. For bus service information or bus schedules visit icgov.org/transit.

If you have questions about these changes or if you would like trip planning assistance, please email ICTransit@iowa-city.org or call 319-356-5151. Thank you for riding Iowa City Transit!

Original source can be found here.