Metro (also known as KMetro) is the operator of

public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...

services in the Kalamazoo metropolitan area of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Metro operates fixed-route

bus service Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications o ...

on 21 routes, serving the city of

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

, its immediate suburbs, and

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

. It also provides demand-response service in all of

Kalamazoo County Kalamazoo County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. , the population was 261,670. The county seat is Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo County is included in the Kalamazoo–Portage, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Etymology The nam ...

, with additional

paratransit Paratransit (also community transport in the United Kingdom, or intermediate public transport) is a type of public transport service that supplements fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. P ...

and

microtransit Microtransit is a form of bus demand responsive transport vehicle for hire. This transit service offers a flexible routing and/or flexible scheduling of minibus vehicles shared with other passengers. Microtransit providers build routes ad-hoc ex ...

services in the region served by its fixed-route buses. Metro operates a fleet of 94 vehicles, providing fixed-route services in a region. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . Metro began service in 1967 as Kalamazoo Metro Transit, taking over the operations of private operator Kalamazoo City Lines. Metro Transit was operated by the City of Kalamazoo from 1967 to 2016, when the Central County Transportation Authority took over operations. Metro's rural services are funded by the Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority, a separate but closely related agency. The current "Metro" branding was introduced in 2018.

Services

Metro operates fixed-route bus, demand-response bus, paratransit, and microtransit services in Kalamazoo County. Metro's fixed-route system serves the city of Kalamazoo and its immediate suburbs, including

Portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

and Comstock Township. Metro operates 21 fixed routes, including 3 Western Michigan University campus shuttle routes. 15 routes connect at the

Kalamazoo Transportation Center The Kalamazoo Transportation Center is an Intermodal train and bus station in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is the second-busiest Amtrak station in Michigan, after Ann Arbor. The Kalamazoo Transportation Center serves as the main hub for K ...

, which also serves Amtrak trains and intercity buses. Additional transfer points include The Crossroads in Portage, the Western Michigan University main campus, and

Maple Hill Pavilion Maple Hill Pavilion (formerly Maple Hill Mall) is a strip mall serving the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Maple Hill Mall became a " dead mall" after several years of decline and the loss of several major tenants. The center has sinc ...

in Oshtemo Township. Metro serves rural Kalamazoo County with its Metro Connect demand-response service, which requires advance reservations. Parts of Metro's fixed-route service area are served by Metro Link

service, operated by

Via Transportation Via Transportation, Inc. is a technology company that provides software as a service (SaaS) and operations to improve public transportation networks for cities, transit agencies, schools and universities, healthcare providers, and corporations a ...

, which does not require advance reservations. Metro also provides vehicles to nonprofit and government organizations for transporting seniors and persons with disabilities through the Metro Share program.

History

Predecessors

The history of public transit service in Kalamazoo dates to 1884, with the establishment of the city's first

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...

line.

Electric streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

service began in 1893, initially operated by the Citizens’ Street Railway Company. The Citizens’ Street Railway Company was bought out by a succession of local interests in the early 1900s, and was absorbed by the

Michigan United Railways Michigan United Railways (MUR) was an interurban which owned and leased numerous lines in the state of Michigan during the early twentieth century. Corporate history The company incorporated in Kalamazoo on March 31, 1906, with the intention of ...

in 1906. The first public motor bus service in Kalamazoo County began in 1905, using an

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile (formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors) was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produc ...

Ten Passenger Wagonette. The bus service connected Nazareth Academy with the East Main Street streetcar line's terminus at the Kalamazoo city limits, a distance of approximately . The Michigan United Railways found the Kalamazoo streetcar lines to be unprofitable in the late 1920s, and sold them in 1929. Streetcars continued operating until 1932, when they were replaced by buses operated by the Kalamazoo Motor Coach Company. From 1936 to 1967, the Kalamazoo bus system was operated by Kalamazoo City Lines, an affiliate of

National City Lines National City Lines, Inc. (NCL) was a public transportation company. The company grew out of the Fitzgerald brothers' bus operations, founded in Minnesota, United States, in 1920 as a modest local transport company operating two buses. Part of th ...

Founding

The City of Kalamazoo entered into a lease agreement with Kalamazoo City Lines in 1958, where the city took over the planning and funding of bus service, and hired Kalamazoo City Lines to operate it. National City Lines ended its services in

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

in 1964, leading to concerns that service in Kalamazoo would soon meet the same fate. In the November 8, 1966 municipal election, Kalamazoo voters approved a

city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the granting of a charter ...

amendment that authorized the city to operate bus service directly. The city of Kalamazoo began operation of the bus system on January 1, 1967, retaining most of the staff of Kalamazoo City Lines. The newly formed service was branded as "Metro Transit" in October 1967, coinciding with the arrival of a fleet of new

GM New Look The GM New Look bus is a municipal transit bus that was introduced in 1959 by the Truck and Coach Division of General Motors to replace the company's previous coach, retroactively known as the GM "old-look" transit bus. Also commonly known by ...

buses, funded in part by a federal grant.

Expansion

Metro Transit expanded its services in the 1970s, extending bus lines outside Kalamazoo city limits. A new fleet of fully wheelchair-accessible buses was placed in service in 1980, the first fullly accessible bus fleet in the state of Michigan. Metro Transit installed automatic passenger counters on its buses in 1980 as part of a demonstration project, funded by the state of Michigan. Kalamazoo Transportation Center bus plaza and main entrance

Kalamazoo Transportation Center bus plaza and main entrance

The Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority was created in 2005 by Kalamazoo County, with the eventual goal of integrating all public transit services in the county. A countywide public transit

millage A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net we ...

was proposed in 2008, but the measure was rejected by voters. The city and the KCTA went ahead with preliminary plans to merge their transit services even without increased funding, and in 2009, Kalamazoo County's Care-A-Van rural transit service was merged with Metro Transit's Metro Van paratransit service to create the Metro County Connect service. A state law passed in 2010 allowed Kalamazoo County to have two transportation authorities, each levying a different property tax rate. The Central County Transportation Authority was created to levy a higher property tax the urbanized areas of Kalamazoo County, including the cities of Kalamazoo and Portage. Two separate millage proposals, a lower rate for rural areas via the KCTA and a higher rate for urban areas via the CCTA, were approved by voters in August 2015. The operations of the transit system were transferred from the city of Kalamazoo to CCTA in October 2016.

Rebranding to "Metro"

Metro Transit rebranded as "Metro" in 2018. The rebranding included a new logo and a new paint scheme for buses. At the same time, the agency began an effort to study its bus stop locations, with the goal of improving passenger experience and service reliability. As part of the program, Metro removed approximately 16% of its stops, and relocated and added additional stops to better serve its passengers.

COVID-19 crisis and present

Metro suspended service on fixed-route buses from April to May 2020 during the initial stages of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the American state of Michigan were discovered on March 10, 2020, one day before the outbreak of the disease was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. As of December 20, ...

. Bus service resumed without Sunday service, which was not reinstated until May 2022. Metro introduced a

service in parts of its fixed-route service area in April 2024. The service is branded as Metro Link, and is operated by

Routes

The

serves as the primary transfer hub for Kalamazoo Metro Transit bus routes. Additional transfer points are located at the Western Michigan University main campus, The Crossroads mall in Portage, and Maple Hill Pavilion in Oshtemo Township.

Accidents and incidents

A Metro bus was involved in a serious collision on May 24, 2017. A reckless driver traveling at over on city streets crashed into the front of a Metro bus on the west side of Kalamazoo, leaving the bus driver with lifelong injuries. On November 27, 2021, a shooting on board a Metro bus at the Kalamazoo Transportation Center injured 3 bus passengers. The shooter was killed by responding Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers. All 3 passengers recovered from their injuries.

Fares

The standard fare for Metro fixed-route bus services is $1.50. Children under tall, seniors, and Medicare recipients ride for half price. Transfers are free and valid for 60 minutes.

students, faculty, and staff ride for free on all routes. Metro Connect rural bus service charges a standard fare of $12, with discounts available for individuals eligible for

service.

Governance

Metro services are operated by the Central County Transportation Authority, a division of the

government with a separate board of trustees. The Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority, also a division of the county government, funds the rural services that are provided by Metro. From 1967 to 2016, Metro Transit services were operated by the city of Kalamazoo. The Metro bus depot and the Kalamazoo Transportation Center are owned by the city of Kalamazoo, and are leased to the CCTA for $1 per year. , the executive director of Metro is Sean McBride.

References

External links

* {{Michigan public transit Bus transportation in Michigan Kalamazoo, Michigan Transportation in Kalamazoo County, Michigan