BETHLEHEM, Pa. — At the Bethlehem Transportation Center, Dashawn Staples is wearing nursing scrubs, waiting for his bus.
"I'm late right now," he said Friday. "They never leave on time, and they never show up on time."
Staples was unaware of recent changes to LANTA's schedules and routes — but said whatever the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority is doing, it just isn't working.
- LANTA has unveiled two, higher-frequency bus routes that go through downtown Bethlehem, Allentown, and South Bethlehem.
- The enhanced bus service is designed to bring a bus every 15 minutes at some stops
- Some riders say they're skeptical — and more changes are needed.
Part of LANTA's new plan is a bus every 15 minutes at stops between the Allentown, Downtown Bethlehem, and South Bethlehem stations — which LANTA said had a 93% on-time rate its first week.
The transit authority also said the rest of the routes now have a bus coming every 30 minutes.
Enhanced Bus Service
The changes are called Enhanced Bus Service (EBS). It's LANTA's version of Bus Rapid Transit, high-frequency buses that operate mostly in Latin American countries, though exist elsewhere, including in the U.S.
The enhanced service has been in the works since 2010, and went into effect Monday.
EBS includes a "Green line" and "Blue line" of buses.
The Green line, according to LANTA, is "a 14.1-mile line serving the core urban areas of Allentown and Bethlehem. This line connects shopping in Whitehall Township to South Bethlehem via center city Allentown and downtown Bethlehem."
The Blue line, according to LANTA, "is a 26.8-mile line connecting the entire valley east to west from the emerging jobs center in Trexlertown/Breinigsville to Downtown Easton. Both lines share a 7.6-mile core alignment between downtown Allentown and Southside Bethlehem, connecting to destinations like Coca-Cola Park, Airport Road, Lehigh Shopping Center, Bethlehem Rose Garden, Moravian Historic District, and SteelStacks."
Looking at the map, the 7.6-mile stretch where the two color lines overlap contains the stops where buses are expected every 15 minutes.
LANTA's perspective
LANTA Manager of Planning and Scheduling A.J. Jordan said for those who live in the Lehigh Valley's cities, the enhanced service will make a difference.
"There are definitely some barriers that make it difficult to live car-free, but if you're living in any of the three center cities and living and working in the center cities, it's definitely doable to live here without a car now especially more so with the EBS system. If you're living on one of these two lines, services decent now and it's only going to get better."A.J. Jordan, LANTA's manager of planning and scheduling
He spoke with LehighValleyNews.com while riding a bus and doesn't own a car himself.
"There are definitely some barriers that make it difficult to live car-free, but if you're living in any of the three center cities and living and working in the center cities, it's definitely doable to live here without a car now — especially more so with the EBS system," he said. "If you're living on one of these two lines, service is decent now and it's only going to get better."
Jordan says he believes it is a noticeable improvement.
"We've improved speeds across the Valley from Trexlertown to Easton by about 25 minutes per direction," he said. "So we've really sped up those connections across the Valley and then increasing the frequency with the most recent change."
"We have this phrase in transit — frequency is freedom," he added. "It allows people to get off the bus at a stop, do whatever they need to do, then jump back on a bus and not be worried about being stranded anywhere."
Riders' perspectives
On Friday, passengers who spoke with LehighValleyNews.com at the Downtown Bethlehem station off Broad Street all expressed concerns about LANTA in general, but some acknowledged that the enhanced bus service was an improvement.
One rider, Lindsey Whitney, was exceptionally upset with the transit authority.
"I'm gonna let you know about these buses," Whitney said. "It's either, you're gonna be late for work, or you're gonna be half an hour early for work."
Whitney explained that with his specific route, his only two options are to be 45 minutes late or 45 minutes early. He said there is no bus run that would get him there at a reasonable time. He said he would be fine with 15 minutes early, but doesn't have the option.
"It's far from good enough," he said. "And it's not fair."
T.J. Jones was waiting for his bus, making small talk with the other passengers.
He said he was happy with LANTA and the enhanced service put in place last week.
"You know, it definitely is good," Jones said. "The transportation is good. There's changes now, and some people aren't happy — people complain — but that happens sometimes, you just got to work around it, or with it. It's gonna be OK."
LANTA's response
LANTA's Jordan issued a response to riders' complaints.
"Monday’s service change introduced a new type of service to the Lehigh Valley — EBS Rapid Transit," he said in an email. "We are listening to riders concerns, as well and finding that many aren’t yet familiar with the new options or know where to access them at new EBS stop locations."
Jordan also suggested that riders use their stop locator tool.
As for buses being late, Jordan said, "The new EBS system is providing 15-minute headways all day between Allentown, downtown Bethlehem, and Southside and every 30 minutes on the remainder of the two EBS routes. So far we have not seen any on-time performance issues with the new routes. (93% of trips have been on-time so far. The remaining 7% of trips have all been late by less than five minutes.)"
The head of the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) – a biking, walking and public transit advocacy group in the Lehigh Valley – applauded the efforts toward enhancing service on the core line.
He said the changes are costly, and securing funding isn’t always simple either.
“If they cut that headway in half, that means they need twice as many buses, which means that the cost for them definitely would go up,” said CAT Executive Director Scott Slingerland. “But that's the point where people would feel really comfortable riding the bus, if they don't have to wait an hour.”
LANTA's Jordan said other changes also are in the works, partially to reflect changes in the way people use the buses after the pandemic.
"In addition to EBS system buildout, LANTA has been redesigning other routes across the system to meet new ridership patterns that have emerged since COVID," Jordan said.
"We understand some of these changes have been difficult to get used to, but we feel these changes have helped to increase access across the region."
Jordan said LANTA ridership has bounced back to 89% of what it was before COVID, compared to the national average of 70%.
