Residents who use the Conroe Connection Transit Service, a fixed bus route, may soon have access to east and west areas of Conroe.

The Conroe Transit Department hosted a public open house on Tuesday, May 8, at the Booker T. Washington Park Pavilion to show the community expansion proposals for the Conroe Connection.

The Conroe Transit Department plans to launch the two new routes in June or July after receiving feedback on the proposals from community members, said Shawn Johnson, transportation manager for the department. Conroe Connection’s first bus routes—the North Route and South Route—were launched by the city in 2015, taking passengers to the Walmart on Loop 336 North and to the Lone Star Family Health Clinic on Loop 336 South, respectively.

Expanding the service routes will provide an affordable transportation option to residents in the new service areas, as well as the Conroe Connection’s on-average 500 riders per week, Johnson said. Transit riders can gain access to health care facilities, education, grocery shopping and other necessities, Johnson said. The fare is $1 for adults and 50 cents for students, children ages 6-12, veterans, seniors and disabled passengers.

“I definitely think we’re going to attract new riders for the people that need it,” Johnson said. “Public transit is not for everyone, but our system is built on our riders telling us where [they] want to go.”

Proposals for the 12.3-mile Northeast Route and the 8.6-mile West Route show the Booker T. Washington Park Pavilion as a shared transfer point with the new routes running every other hour. Lone Star College-Conroe Center is the proposed anchor destination for the Northeast Route, and Tri-County Behavioral Healthcare is the proposed anchor destination for the West Route.

Danielle Newlon, Conroe facility coordinator for Tri-County Behavioral Healthcare, said she is happy that the center is a proposed stop. Tri-County Services was accessible via the existing service routes until the facility consolidated its eight locations into one building on Sgt. Ed Holcomb Boulevard in March 2017, Newlon said.

“It’s awesome to have everybody in the same building now, but there’s been an issue for clients getting to and from [the center] easily like they did before because they don’t have the bus service anymore,” she said.

Newlon said the new service routes will be beneficial to the center's clients who need an affordable and safe way to get to the center to receive services. In the future, Newlon said she would like to see the Northeast and West routes run on one-hour schedules rather than every other hour, which she said would make it easier for families to visit the center.

To learn more about the proposed routes and view the list of bus stops, visit www.cityofconroe.org/departments/transit.