Another proposal in the June 2009 Service Change is to eliminate weekend service on the ‘Dillos, both #450 Congress Ave. and #451 6th Street. Unfortunately no one is riding the ‘Dillos on weekends. Well, that’s not exactly true. On any given ‘Dillo trip made on weekends, there’s on average between two and four people on it. You may recall that last year the ‘Dillo system got a major overhaul: In Aug. 2008 we streamlined the routes and schedules so that they could operate as they were originally intended: as downtown circulators. During the week, the ‘Dillos work great transporting downtown workers and residents to meetings, lunch, and shopping errands. On weekends, the vision was that the ‘Dillos would attract tourists, weekend shoppers, and downtown residents. And it does, just not enough of them to justify the service. Of all of Capital Metro’s routes that operate on weekends, the ‘Dillos have the fewest riders—2-4 riders per trip, as I mentioned. By contrast, #1L/1M, our busiest route, carries about 80 people per trip on weekends. The poor economy may play a role in the low ridership, since today there’s perhaps fewer tourists and weekend shoppers milling around downtown.
Public input is always sought before any service change proposal is adopted, and the public hearing about the June 2009 Service Change is today at 12:30 p.m., at Capital Metro’s headquarters, 2910 E. 5th Street.
