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New public transportation routes through southern Illinois unveiled Monday have Denise Abell seeing more opportunities for people in her rural community.
Abell, a resident of Harrisburg, said the expansion of Rides Mass Transit District bus routes to run from Harrisburg through SIUC, John A. Logan College and other stops along Illinois Route 13 will provide more affordable travel options for people throughout southern Illinois.
"It's really been a blessing to a lot of people," Abell said.
As a home health care nurse for the Harrisburg Medical Center, Abell said she has seen many of her patients use the bus routes to travel to doctor appointments as far as Paducah, Ky., and Evansville, Ind. But the newest addition to the service could go further to provide an affordable avenue to education for her 19-year-old son, who is considering transferring to SIUC next year, she said.
Access to education was a prime motivator for many involved in getting the new routes off the ground, said Bill Jung, chief executive officer of Rides Mass Transit District. He said many in the 16 southern Illinois counties the service serves had inquired about traveling to SIUC and other colleges.
The expansion connects Harrisburg to Carbondale with four routes per day, with scheduled stops at Southeastern Illinois College, Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, John A. Logan College in Carterville, Williamson County Regional Airport, the SIUC Student Center, and other locations throughout Carbondale.
"Prospective students, or students that didn't identify themselves as current students, were asking us, 'Well, how do we get to SIU?'" Jung said.
The project was funded through a variety of federal, state and regional resources, through grant partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation. Initial research and planning for the project was completed through SIUC's Center for Rural Heath and Social Services, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, the SIU School of Medicine and the president's office.
Jung said initial work on the route started just more than one year ago, with Rides looking to expand its services and legislators and educators in southern Illinois aiming to move things along as well.
John Haller, SIU's vice president for academic affairs, oversaw the research of the project for the university. He said his involvement began when he and SIU President Glenn Poshard met with IDOT representatives in Springfield and pitched the idea.
When IDOT was receptive, Haller said he brought the idea to the administrators in the Center for Rural Health and Social Services, who already had partners lined up for the project. After moving through the research phase, he said, the project came to light very quickly - and at the perfect time.
"It was more timely than any of us anticipated because of the energy crisis," Haller said. "What we discovered in the initial analysis was that transportation was identified by multiple groups as being a need, but it reminded me, when you look at the data, as a city with taxis owning a certain turf area and nobody crossing the lines."
Because of this, there needed to be a push to find a common interest to get all groups to cooperate instead of protecting their own turf, which culminated with the Rides option, Haller said.
It is especially important in southern Illinois, with a largely dispersed population, that education such as that provided at SIUC is accessible, Haller said.
"To me it's a tragedy that we've sort of lost the public side of public higher education," he said. "In one small but I think significant way, this is an avenue of getting that back."
The price to ride could also help prospective students defer the rising cost of education, Haller said. A trip from Harrisburg to Carbondale is $6 one-way, while 30-day monthly passes can be purchased for adults for $50.
There were 20 subscribed riders for the routes as of Monday morning, Jung said, of the total 88 seats available.
Abell said the only drawback she has heard about the Rides program is the downfall of all public transportation programs - the inability to come and go as one pleases.
"A lot of times they'll grumble because it might take them longer than they like to get home, but I don't think that can be changed," she said. "I think they do the best they can do with where they go."
Sean McGahan can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 274 or mcgahan@siu.edu.
