Public transportation can be a vital tool supporting current and future workforce. In June, community development staff with the City of Marion began reviewing potential options to improve public transit services. This review was done in partnership with the City of Cedar Rapids, Horizons, the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Currently bus service is provided in the city of Marion using the Marion Circulator Route. This route is a continuous loop through the Marion community that is available every hour. The route beings near Twixt Town Road at 5:40 am with the last daily trip beginning at 4:40 pm.
In November, city staff presented three options to the Marion City Council for feedback. The three options are outlined below. If your business or employees have feedback on the three options, please share them with the MEDCO team.
Options include:
OPTION A: This option would extend the current Route 5 into Marion. It would run primarily along 1st Avenue (Cedar Rapids) and 7th Avenue (Marion). This route would run every 15 minutes during normal bus service hours. The farthest this bus route would extend east in Marion is the 26th Street roundabout (near Townplace Suites). Customers would be able to ride directly to downtown Cedar Rapids with this extended Route 5.
With this option, a new Optimal Micro Transit service would be added to the community. In partnership with Horizons, three small buses/vehicles would be available on demand for a rider to schedule trips in the community using a free app. This would extend bus services beyond a fixed route and provide for custom routes that fit the needs of riders. Three smaller buses/vehicles would continuously move throughout the community to optimize the on demand requests of users and provide seamless transfers to other fixed routes. With Micro Transit, door to door trips within Marion would be able to be scheduled with as little as 15 minutes notice.
The current Marion Circulator Route would be eliminated with this option.
OPTION B: This option would maintain the current Marion Circulator Route. The route would continue running every one hour. Similar to Option A, this option would add the new Optimal Micro Transit service. In order to get to downtown Cedar Rapids, a transfer would be required at the Twixt Town Rd transfer area.
OPTION C: Similar to Option A, this option would extend the current Route 5 into Marion. However, under this option, service would be extended along 7th Avenue/Business 151 all the way to the Marion Walmart location. This route would run every 15 minutes during normal bus service hours. This option would still not provide any fixed route bus service east of Highway 13/151. Riders would be able to ride directly to downtown Cedar Rapids with this extended Route 5.
Similar to Option A, this option would add the new Optimal Micro Transit service. The current Marion Circulator Route would be eliminated with this option.
If you have questions about any of the options, you may also contact Kesha Billings. The Marion City Council is expected to take action on any route changes in early 2023.