LOGAN – Cache Valley Transit District (CVTD) is getting ready to unleash their new Boomerang route on January 6, 2020, the first major change in over a decade.
“The future of CVTD is an integral part of Cache Valley growth,” said Todd Beutler, the CVTD executive director and CEO. “At first, people are a little resistant to change, and as we settle in, we gain insight.”
The Boomerang will take about an hour from start to finish, but there will be other buses along the route so riders can get on or off a bus going the same direction at different intervals and reach destinations quicker.
Bus officials had the vision of connecting the university to downtown. This will be first time they have bidirectional routes at the same time, he said.
The bus will connect Utah State University students to both north and south Walmarts.
“The valley has grown, congestion has grown, there is more air quality issues and more and more people want the bus as an option,” Beutler said.” We are trying to get the university students to spend more time downtown with the boomerang.”
Bus routes will originate at the transit center, but will not end there. Instead, the bus will make a continuous loop.
“We will have buses going in opposite directions during peak times: every 15 minutes in the morning from 7 a.m. to after 11a.m. and in the afternoon and evening from 2 p.m. until after 6:30 p.m.,” Beutler said. “People will have bus arrival information at their fingertips with our new app.”
He said there will be more loops with more frequent stops from campus to both Walmarts and back to campus.
“A lot of good things have been generated because of these changes; we’ve gathered a lot of input before making them,” he said. “Bus service isn’t as convenient if it doesn’t run as often as people like.”
He said they are excited about the new route and what it will do for the valley.
“How quickly things change,” the CVTD official said. “Look at what has traffic has done in the past five years.”
The Boomerang will continue to make transit a more convenient option.
“In the next three to five years, we expect more and more people to take the bus,” he said. “Maybe not for every trip, but when a bus trip makes sense.”
He said they are also making an effort to connect all of the new public housing units to their routes.
Great mass transit improvement.
Still waiting for an easier, quicker way to get from Richmond to Icon Health & Fitness… with transfers it takes me 1 hr 50 min to get to Icon, leaving home at 7am. It takes about 1 hr 25 min to get home. Very time consuming.