Madison County Transit

Madison County Transit
Founded 1980
Headquarters One Transit Way, P.O. Box 7500, Granite City 62040
Locale Madison County, Illinois
Service area Madison County, Illinois
St. Clair County, Illinois
St. Louis, Missouri
Service type bus service
paratransit
bike trails
Alliance St. Clair County Transit District
Bi-State Development Agency
Routes 25 bus routes
10 bike trails
Hubs 5 MCT bus stations
Fleet 73 Gillig BRT transit buses
31 ACT vehicles
Daily ridership 8,000 daily
40,000 weekly
Website mct.org

Madison County Transit, or MCT for short, is a bus and bike trail transportation system that serves the citizens of Madison County, which is located in Illinois approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of St. Louis. It was created in 1980 by the Madison County Board to improve transportation in Madison County, and is a completely separate transit system from the St. Louis Metro Transit system which includes MetroLink, which doesn't operate into Madison County, though the buses connect with many MetroBus routes and even serve MetroLink stations in East St. Louis, Belleville and Downtown St. Louis.

Services

Madison County Transit operates a fleet of 73 buses on 25 routes, carries 8000 riders daily, 40,000 riders weekly, and over 2 million riders annually. It includes an express bus service from towns across Madison County to downtown St. Louis, cross county bus service for long distance services within the county, and shuttle bus service, as well as a paratransit bus service known as ACT (Agency for Community Transit) or Runabout.

In 2008, MCT gave out Summer Break Youth Bus Passes to over 22,000 students ages 12–18. Illinois Public Act 95-0708 became effective in February 2008, allowing all elderly/disabled people to ride bus service for free. All buses are equipped with bike racks, wheelchair lifts, and handicapped seats. Buses are also able to lower to the ground giving easier access to elderly/disabled people.

Route list

Shuttle Service

Cross County Service

Regional Service

EZ Ride Service

Express Service

Special Service

Bike trails

The MCT Trails System was born in the early 1990s, to preserve rail corridors for future light rail possibilities and interim trail use. In addition to the bus service, MCT owns and maintains nearly 100 miles (160 km) of bike trails throughout Madison County. Madison County Transit is the only transit system in the country with an integrated bus and bikeway system.

Trail list

Bus stations

Madison County Transit has five bus stations where each branch of service converge.

Plans

Light rail

They are working together with the Bi-State Development Agency about the future Mass Transit in Greater St. Louis. There are talks to create bus rapid transit and light rail routes to Granite City and Edwardsville. However, in 1997, voters in Madison County rejected a ½ cent sales tax which would have made Madison County next on the list of planned St. Louis MetroLink lines after the 3rd phase of the MetroLink's St. Clair County Extension was complete. This phase would extend the line 5.3 miles east from its current terminus at the Shiloh-Scott Station to MidAmerica Airport. Originally, this was part of the second phase's plan, but its own phase was later created due to low ridership projections, and has since been canceled altogether. As of 2010 the plans for the MidAmerica extension have been removed from the Moving Transit Forward's 30-year plan, as they are no longer planning on completing the line since MidAmerica serves no passenger airlines.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madison County Transit.