Route Focus: PVTA G2E - East Springfield Express

Route Focus: PVTA G2E - East Springfield Express

  April 23, 2020    Kareem W

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Trip: East Springfield via Cottage Street / I-291 Express

Taken: June 2019

Usually, I’m cool with the PVTA’s express routes, and when I first heard that they’d be making an express version of my home route, the G2, I was pretty stoked. When I found out the details though, and the fact that they were reducing service on the G2 to make the G2E, I began to extremely dislike this route.

The G2E at Union Station – Even the destination sign is slighly confusing

I took the G2E on a bright afternoon from Springfield Union Station to the Memorial Industrial Park in East Springfield. The vehicle operating this trip was PVTA bus #1635, a 2007 Gillig Low Floor 40’. Leaving Union Station from the same berth as the G2, we went up Liberty Street, passing the various office buildings and parking garages just outside of Downtown Springfield.

An office building near Union Station

The bus turned onto Chestnut Street, and then very shortly turned onto the highway ramp for the I-291 heading east, beginning the express portion of the route.

The view just after getting on I-291

Getting up to highway speed, the bus roared down I-291, aka the “Springfield Expressway”, for about 3½ miles, heading toward the industrial East Springfield.

The interior of #1635

Taking exit #5A, we were now on Page Boulevard. This is now the non-express portion, which regular G2 “Cottage Street” trips take. Going up Page Boulevard, there’s initially some industrial warehouses, but the surroundings became residential as the road curves.

There is a small park though

After a bit, the bus turned onto Brookdale Drive, and there’s just various industrial buildings again, along with some offices.

Turning onto Brookdale Drive

At the end of Brookdale Drive, the bus turned onto Cottage Street and we stopped across the street from the new Springfield-area bus operations and maintenance center for PVTA. See, the G2E was created to coincide with the opening of the new facility. The purpose of this is that drivers switch out of buses at certain times of the day, and the G2E provides a fast way for PVTA drivers and staff to get between Union Station and the facility. Sure enough, there was 1 PVTA worker who was on the bus and got off here, but earlier on the same day when I rode the G2E, there was at least 7 PVTA workers getting off at the stop.

The front of the beautiful and huge facility

Anyways, the bus continued on Cottage Street, passing all sorts of businesses, including a day care center and an animal adoption center.

Businesses like this

After a bit, the bus turned onto Industry Avenue, stopping at the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). This stop was another reason the PVTA used for the creation of the G2E. The DTA used to be in a building right next to Union Station, but it was moved to Cottage Street in the same year. There was even a petition on change.org with more than 100 signatures demanding the PVTA or the city or the center itself to provide shuttle buses to the DTA.

The building of the DTA also houses other government offices

Continuing on Industry Avenue, we passed some more official offices, then we turned onto Memorial Drive, ending at the same stop as the G2 and X92.

The only thing that’s true about both the G2E and the AD on the bus is that ¡Es rápido!

Overview

The G2E operates at a messy 50-minute interval on weekdays only. What really sucks about the G2E is that the hours it operates are very limited, with the first trip leaving at 9:40 AM and last trip at 5:35 PM. The G2E barely meets the ridership threshold for hourly routes, with around 7 passengers per revenue hours. The trip I was on got exactly 7 people.

The fact that the creation of the G2E reduced the service of a the high-ridership G2 from every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes (Saturday service levels) is a big slap in the face to all the other riders of the G2 who have no purpose of going to the industrial park. This area isn’t even a big ridership magnet anyway. Also, since the G2E doesn’t start operating until late in the morning, so its useless for getting people to work in the morning.

In my opinion, the G2E is the most useless route the PVTA currently operates. I'd be happy seeing it go away and 20-minute service restored to the regular G2, which serves the same destinations as the G2E anyway.