Eau Claire Transit is a mass transportation provider in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. The system consists of fifteen core routes and is served by a fleet of 22 low-floored buses.[1] Service frequency varies from thirty minutes to one hour depending on the route and time of day. There is no service on Sundays or Saturday evenings.
An Eau Claire Transit bus in 2018
History
The history of transit in the city began in 1879 when the first horse-drawn trolleys operated by the Eau Claire City Railway Co. began service. Eau Claire was the third city in Wisconsin to adopt the method of transport. The city was also one of the first in the United States to adopt the use of electric-powered trolleys in the 1880s. As well as the first in the country to heat trolley cars using electricity, a development influenced by the state’s climate.[3][4] By 1907, the interurban network had grown to stretch as far as Chippewa Falls.[5]
However, the system started to decline by the mid 1920s and the first buses started replacing the streetcar lines in 1930. Three years later, buses had completely replaced the trolley network and the rail lines were abandoned. This transition was an early example of what would become a broader trend across the nation, where buses were viewed as a more financially prudent compared to the fixed routes and infrastructure required for trolleys.[6] Near the end of the decade, due to financial difficulties, the city sold the network to an area investor and was operated as Eau Claire Transportation Co. [7][8] The company continued to run the regions transit system for the next several decades until the mid 1970s when it was sold back to the city and renamed Eau Claire Transit.[9]
In 1985, the city built a transit center in the downtown area, which was intended to be a temporary location until a permanent transit center could be constructed. This temporary arrangement would last for over 36 years.[10] In the fall of 2021, construction of a new transit center began on the same site as the temporary 1985 transit center.[11]
Routes
The Eau Claire Transit Center located in the downtown area is the beginning and end point for the majority of the bus routes. The only routes that do not layover at the center are those that directly serve the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire.[12]
A main feature of the bus system is the interlining of routes, which means that the same bus can serve different routes at different times. For instance, the bus that runs on route 2 becomes route 12 (and vice versa) after stopping at the Transit Center at :15 and :45 minutes past each hour. Similarly, route 5 and route 15 share the same bus, as well as several other route pairs. However, not all routes interline with another one. Some of the longer routes have a lower frequency and layover at the Transit Center once per hour, either at :15 or :45.
The routes serving the UW campus area have layovers in front of the Davies Center or Centennial Hall every 15–30 minutes rather than at the Transit Center. Route 9 does stop briefly at the Transit Center to enable transfers with the main network:
9 Water St (Lower Campus, EC Transit Center, Downtown, and Pablo Center)
19 Stein Blvd (Upper Campus, various student housing, and Bollinger Fields.)
During the evenings, both are consolidated into an expanded route 9 covering both upper and lower campus areas. There is also an hourly Saturday only service that focuses on connecting the UWEC campus with Oakwood Mall and other retail areas on the southeast side of the city.[13][14]
The university routes do not run during summer recess and have reduced service during winter break; there is no service on Sundays.
ECT bus stop sign
Other routes also serve parts of campus, 2 and 7 run on Water Street, while 15, 6, 7 and 21 pass campus on State Street. All city bus routes are free to UWEC students and faculty.[15]
Express routes
The agency operates three weekday express routes that have limited service with one trip daily. These routes primarily serve schools and other public entities.[16]
E1 (Career Development Center)
E10 (Mayo Clinic-Luther Hospital, Delong Middle School, Career Development Center)
E11 (South Middle School, Memorial High School)
Eau Claire Transit Center
Until 2021, Eau Claire Transit had been operating out of a 1985 transit center, which had been planned as a temporary location until a permanent transit center could be built. However, this arrangement lasted for 36 years. In 2018, the city was awarded a $5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant for the project by the US Department of Transportation.[17][18]
The new transit center began construction on September 17, 2021, on the same site as the "temporary" 1985 transit center. In order to provide a transfer facility during construction, a temporary facility was built at South Farwell Street and Gray Street, just east of the current site, on a surface parking lot. This site opened on September 2, and will be in use until the new transit center is complete in summer 2024. This site and the new transit center will both have dedicated bus bays for each route, a first for Eau Claire.[17]
The new transit center will feature restrooms, a heated and air conditioned lobby, offices for transit supervisors and retail space on the ground floor, two stories of parking above, and three stories of affordable housing on top. The 50 to 60 apartments above are intended to be “workforce housing,” meaning the rent will be affordable for those making between 80% and 120% of the median county income. The city originally partnered with the developer Merge Urban Development Group on the project, however the developer backed out in late 2021 and Impact Seven, a Rice Lake-based nonprofit that specializes in developing and managing affordable housing, took over. Due to this change, the housing will be less affordable, but still below the area median income.[18]
The new transit center will be complete in summer 2024, however the whole project, including parking and housing, will not be finished until 2025. Due to the high construction costs in 2021 and 2022, the city must contribute $9.55 million to the project instead of the original $1.25 million. An estimate from 2019 had estimated the value of the project at $23.5 million.[19][20][21]
