Tulsa Transit Demonstrates New Bus It Wants To Buy

Tulsa Transit demonstrated a new bus Wednesday the city is proposing to use in a couple of years on two of its most popular routes.  

The proposal is part of the City of Tulsa's Vision package, which includes $57 million for public transit projects.  

The bus is more comfortable for passengers, with larger windows, wider doors and all the seats face the front.

The big change though is the service - limited stops - with small, permanent stations on the line that make it faster to load and unload, and a more realistic choice for commuting.

"We can't have people waiting an hour and a half for the bus and expect that to be a reasonable part of their lifestyle, but when a bus comes every 15 minutes and you can show up at the bus stop knowing it's going to get you where you need to go, it changes the way that people get around in our city," said Tulsa City Councilor Blake Ewing.

These new Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] buses would operate on the north-south Peoria route and the east-west Route 66 route. 

The Peoria BRT route would travel Peoria from 81st South to 38th Street North and the Route 66 BRT route would follow 11th and 21st Streets from the Denver Avenue Station at 4th Street and South Denver in downtown Tulsa to 145th East Avenue at Eastgate Metroplex.  

The bus was in Tulsa Wednesday on the way to Kansas City, where this kind of express service is already in use.

In Tulsa, the earliest we would see these buses would be 2019.  That is if the Vision package is approved by voters on April 5.

2/25/2016 Related Story: Campaign Begins For New Tulsa Vision Tax Plan