Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Buses Start Monday

Tired of fighting morning rush hour traffic on Washtenaw or Packard? Think the chuckholes in Huron River Drive may swallow the car before the loan's paid off? Wince perceptibly the last time you bought gas? Take a bus. To Ypsilanti?? Right. For the first time in county history, Monday morning Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti residents will be able to take a ' bus to work in the neighboring city. The first bus on the new Ypsilanti route operated by Ann Arbor Transportation Authority will leave the city bus stop at S. Fourth Avenue and E. William Street at 6:45 a.m. and, after a stop at Arborland, will arrive in downtown Ypsilanti at 7:30 a.m. Ypsilanti residents wishing to travel to Ann Arbor can catch that early bus on the south side of Washtenaw at Ballard at 7 a.m. and arrive in downtown Ann Arbor 45 minutes later. It will cost 50 cents - and to stop the 1 bus anywhere along the route, all you have to do is stand on the corner. In addition, there will be a new bus 1 route within the Ypsilanti area - the first in that area's history. The Ypsilanti route will connect with the Ann ArborYpsilanti service, thus providing complete bus service to the area. There will be no Dial-A-Ride in Ypsilanti, however. Printed schedules for the routes ïr.av 'be picked up at the AATA offices on W. Washington Street in Ann Arbor and are summarized as follows: If traveling from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, residents should take the Washtenaw bus from the bus stop at S. Fourth and William which leaves at 15 minutes before and af ter the hour. That bus will arrive at Arborland one-half hour after it leaves downtown Ann Arbor. Passengers will remain on the same bus which will then travel east on Washtenaw to its downtown Ypsilanti station at Michigan Avenue and Ballard Street. The traveling time from Arborland to downtown Ypsilanti is about 15 minutes and thus the bus will arrive in downtown Ypsilanti about 45 minutes after it left i downtown Ann Arbor. - -From the Michigan-Ballard station, passengers may connect with the intraYpsilanti bus which will have a transfer point at the Michigan-Ballard station on the hour and the half hour. Passengers wishing to travel to Ypsilanti Township should remain on the original bus which will then travel out Michigan Avenue to Ecorse Road and stop at the Lake in the Woods apartment complex and 15 minutes before and after the hour. To travel from downtown Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti Township will thus take one hour. To travel west from .Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor, the bus will leave Lake in the Woods apartments at 15 minutes before and after the hour, arriving at the Ballard-Michigan transfer point on the hour and half-hour. Passengers may then transfer to the intra-Ypsilanti route or remain on the same bus which will then head west on Washtenaw to Arborland, arriving there at 15 minutes before and after the hour. From Arborland, it is a one-half hour ride to downtown Ann Arbor aboard the sarne bus which stops near the U-M campus and hospital, St. Josephs Mercy Hospital, the business" district, and eventually travels to Briarwood. To travel from Ypsilanti Township to Briarwood will take one hour and 45 minutes. Passengers from both Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor may transfer at Arborland to take a bus to Washtenaw Community College and Meijer's Thrifty Acres in Pittsfield Township. The fare to those two destinations will be 25 cents from either end and this is the first time bus service to Meijer's has been available to Ann Arbor residents. The fare to Ypsilanti is 50 cents and will be collected in two stages. Passengers will pay their first 25 cents when they board the bus and can ride anywhere west of Golfside Road in Ypsilanti Township for that quarter. When the passenger disembarks anywhere east of Golfside (coming from Ann Arbor) a second quarter will be collected when he or she leaves the bus. All transfers on the system are free. Karl Guenther, executive director of the AATA, says Ann Arbor residents will receive additional benefits other than the service to Ypsilanti: larger buses will be made available on the Packard route which has been crowded, and buses will travel Washtenaw every half hour throughout the day instead of once per hour during mid-day and every half hour during rush hour. üüënthër anticipates that the first 19 weeks the system will spend about $76, 000. The system has a guaranteed income of $132,464, $70,000 contributed by Ypsilanti city, Ypsilanti Township, Superior Township, Ann Arbor Township, and Pittsfield Township, and $fi2, 464 contributed by the AATA in the form of state revenue given to the authority based on population outside the Ann Arbor city limits. Guenther stressed no millage money from the 2.5-mill tax levy Ann Arbor residents voted to fund mass transportation last year will be used to help finance the system. Guenther explains that in order for that amount of guaranteed revenue to carry the system for an entire calendar year, the system will have to develop a ridership of about 6,000 persons per week. He added he expects the buses to hit a 1,000 passengers per day by the. end of the 19-week introductory period. The Ypsilanti local route will have 33passenger buses and a bus will travel the route every half hour. Both routes will stop at Beyer Hospital and the Ypsilanti local route passes by all three Ypsilanti junior highs and within a block of Willow Run High School. Guenther says the Ypsilanti route comes "within three blocks of most Ypsilanti residences although there are some areas of the township where a person would have to walk farther." The Ann Ypsilanti system will be governed by an advisory board report ing to the seven-member AATA Board The advisory board will be composed of one representative from each of the contributing governments, Guenther, and Marilyn Thayer, chairwoman of the county's Mass Transportation subcommittee. There is no planned opening ceremony for the system. William E. Winter, county commissioner from Ypsilanti Township, who called for an Ann ArborYpsilanti bus last year, said: "I'm very proud that it did happen . . . absolutely, I'll ride it. I had planned to be one of the first passengers but I will be out of the state Monday and unable to ride the first bus." ?P)&Jl)