AirJTA: Ghost Bus?

[Metro Jacksonville]

AirJTA: Ghost Bus?



AirJTA is a regularly scheduled bus service from Downtown Jacksonville to the Jacksonville International Airport. This service is a fast and economical way to get to the airport; the only problem is, no one is riding.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/558

[02roadking]

I have used this a couple of times. While it was a hike from the house at 7th & Liberty to the FCCJ station,(missed the bus on 8th)it saved me the money for airport parking. Both times, there was 3 of us using the service. Of couse, if there was a rail service, S-line to the airport please, I would never, ever, drive to the airport again.

[thelakelander]

If there was rail connecting downtown to the airport, I'd bet the house and kids that more than three people would be on each train, as well.

[Ocklawaha]

AirJTA BUS  

This is a great service and a very good idea, is our highway-builder up to the task?


Sure is a good thing I know that Colombia and
Mexico are in the 3Rd World, because they might have
fooled me with this type of service.

FROM TOWN:
Start at Kings Avenue Station to City Hall Annex (Newnan and Bay Streets)
Next stop at Adams and Hogan Streets
Next stop at Rosa L. Parks/FCCJ Transit Station
Then on I-95 to Jacksonville International Airport where the bus will proceed into the Arriving Flights tunnel with a designated stop in front of the Ground Transportation booth.

TO TOWN:
Start Jacksonville International Airport
Travel along the south Airport Service Road, stopping at bus stops near Longhorn Steakhouse and the Hilton Garden Inn.
Back on I-95 to Kings Avenue Station.
See Schedule

PARK FREE and CONNECT HASSLE FREE

Make easy connection through the Rosa L. Parks/FCCJ Transit Station downtown. Or avoid parking hassles by parking FREE at JTA's surface lot at the Kings Avenue Garage. AirJTA parking spots are designated for your convenience. Once you board, the AirJTA buses are air-conditioned and feature luggage racks.

CONVENIENT

With stops near airport hotels and restaurants, and convenient curbside drop-off at the JIA terminal, AirJTA is perfect for people commuting to work near the airport, and for business travelers catching flights through JIA.
INEXPENSIVE
Adult Fare: $3 one way
Seniors/Disabled: $1.50 one way
Transportation Disadvantaged: $1.50 one way
Weekly and/or monthly JTA pass holders
swipe card plus 50¢ fare

*No bus tickets are accepted. Riders needing a travel receipt can request one from the operator.
Exact fare required, change will not be provided.
Kids 42 inches and under ride free.

FAST

AirJTA will get you from downtown to the airport in about 30 minutes.. And with someone else at the wheel, you can spend the time reading, catching up on paperwork, or just relaxing.
For more information call JTA Customer Service at (904) 630-3100.


Colombia again! Say Gringo, where are those chicken and pigs?

So  JTA already has a "BRT" bus up and running. Air JTA, runs to the airport in 30 minutes from downtown because it uses the freeway and has limited stops. Golly, just like BRT! True the lanes are not dedicated, the stations fancy, or the headway's decent, but it IS a taste of BUS-MEETS-FREEWAY-ON-FIXED-ROUTE... What the industry might call a "Express Flier" or "Quality Bus."  Even with this one route, apparently JTA has fumbled the ball. Just imagine what they could do if we give them $300 Million, $500 Million, $700 Million, a Billion (or whatever) the BRT system is going to cost us today.

Like a child in a cold swimming pool, JTA has not committed itself to taking the plunge and running this service with the headway's, routes or marketing it deserves. Mass Transit is not something easy to sell when the transit agency refuses to provide frequency or promotion. Why is this version of BRT like operation's not running at least every 30 minutes? Why does this route not originate in front of each of our major hotels? Why is it not reaching beyond downtown to say, Arlington and the Beaches and Mayport, Southside and Southwest to NAS/Orange Park on 90 minute rotations? Simple thought, 8:AM Airport-Downtown Hotels-Mayport/Beaches, 8:30AM Airport-Downtown Hotels-Southside, 9:AM Airport-Downtown Hotels-NAS/Orange Park.  


TOD? This is the food court in one of Medellins bus stations.
Anyone up for Empanada's? I'll buy the coffee!


A service like this could be co-sponsored by the hotels themselves, making a door to door delivery of passengers and their bags a reality. Suspend a giant plastic bus from the airport ceiling and let it point the way of Rapid Bus to everyone who passes through.

Where is the service to Amtrak? Could the same bus stop in front of Greyhound downtown? Why not? We plan a Transportation Center for multi-modal passenger service then fail to provide a connector for multi-modal transportation today! Does JTA know that it could be listed in the Amtrak schedule folders and on the Airline web-sites and computer terminals? For little effort Amtrak could show a schedule from various regional towns and cities to Jacksonville, then on to our Airport and Beaches.  


Just another 3Rd World Bus,
kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

Who's going to help me with my baggage? Does JTA have a "flight attendant" on this bus? Crazy you say? Trailways did that way back with a product called the "Golden Eagle Service." It became the most popular thing the company ever did, and remains a legend in the Motor Coach World. Speaking of Trailways, why is a bare bones City Transit Bus even on this route? Passengers want to be pampered, why don't we have a couple of long-distance, restroom equipped, motor coaches running on this? The difference is in the ride quality, it's sort of like comparing a Mercedes and a potato wagon. JTA peanuts or coffee anyone?

Where is the Transit Oriented Development on this Super-Bus route? Why have the bus-loving citizens not flocked to fill this route to capacity? Empty buses? It's obvious to me that with another $300 Million or even a Billion dollars, we could build special freeways and spread this idea to the whole of the City. I would probably order those new Gillig City Transit Coaches, paint them in a snappy new gray color scheme and blow them through downtown every 5 minutes. Just imagine...


Ocklawaha

[Ryan67]

The main point is missed once again, this site is often times so interested in looking for the big drama story that they overlook the main points….

This service is great but they do not run the service on weekends....  This is a problem for travelers that are not going for business reasons.  If it's a business reason you travel during the week (majority of the time) how you get to the airport is of little concern take the most convenient for you and that would be to put the charge on your expense report....  It's easy...  For travel on weekends the service is not available to you…  The main reason we had this service in Detroit was so that people working at the Airport had a cheep way to get to work….

I would like to park in my parking garage and get the bus to the airport on the weekend but nope, it’s just does not run…..

[Ocklawaha]

Like a child in a cold swimming pool, JTA has not committed itself to taking the plunge and running this service with the headway's, routes or marketing it deserves. Mass Transit is not something easy to sell when the transit agency refuses to provide frequency or promotion.

Sorry about that, I sort of thought the lack of service, headway's and frequency addressed that issue. You are right of course, this thing should be running 24/7/365!

Ocklawaha

[thelakelander]

The main point is missed once again, this site is often times so interested in looking for the big drama story that they overlook the main points….

This service is great but they do not run the service on weekends....  This is a problem for travelers that are not going for business reasons.  If it's a business reason you travel during the week (majority of the time) how you get to the airport is of little concern take the most convenient for you and that would be to put the charge on your expense report....  It's easy...  For travel on weekends the service is not available to you…  The main reason we had this service in Detroit was so that people working at the Airport had a cheep way to get to work….

I would like to park in my parking garage and get the bus to the airport on the weekend but nope, it’s just does not run…..

You may have missed the last part of the article.  Here's what it says.

At the current passenger level, this service may not survive.

AirJTA service breakdown

The AirJTA shuttle bus costs $3.

Advantages to AirJTA
1. Only costs $3 each way
2. Travel time from FCCJ Transit Station is comparable to a taxi or private car
3. Free parking is provided at the Kings Avenue Garage


Potential problems afflicting this service:
1. Downtown route parallels the skyway, adding to travel time
2. Lack of promotion
3. Frequency is only approximately every 1.5 hours
4. No weekend service

Looking at JTA's website, it is nearly impossible to find out about this service, especially if you are not familiar with its official name: AirJTA / NS-33.

The schedule and route for NS-33 can be found here.

[Lunican]

No weekend service is definitely a problem, but at this point it is not the main problem. The immediate issue is that the service is not promoted and no one is even aware it exists.

It is hard for JTA to justify shorter headways and weekend service without promotion. These issues really need to be addresses simultaneously.

[02roadking]

Also, the last bus out in the evenings, from the airport to town is 7:41pm. So if the plane lands at 7:30, I won't be making the NS33 to town.

[Ocklawaha]

It is hard for JTA to justify shorter headways and weekend service without promotion. These issues really need to be addresses simultaneously.

Like the chicken and the egg, which come's first? We don't promote it because it doesn't carry enough passengers to pay for the expense, and it doesn't pay for the expenses because we don't promote it...I think I just found those darn missing chickens!

Ocklawaha

[tufsu1]

no promotion....I guess the big billboard along I-95 near the Kings Ave station doesn't count?

[Ocklawaha]

No promotion? I guess if I don't see it as I drive past, then no, it doesn't count. We have electronic media all over the City and I haven't heard or seen a thing. I wonder how many others have missed the promotion?

Ocklawaha

[thelakelander]

It seems like they'll need to try to be a little more agressive instead of having one billboard next to the Kings Avenue Garage.  If they are targeting the airport to downtown connection, then hitting the hotels would be a great place to start, as well as the trolley and skyway stops.  To sum it up, I don't know who JTA's target rider may be, but whoever they are, the promotion efforts need to be agressively pushed in that market segment's immediate environment.

[gatorback]

I love the AirJTA Ghost Bus.  I did use it to get to the airport several times.  The price is right for me and the only problem I have with it is that it isn't scheduled for 1:00 AM which is the time I usually arrive back in Jacksonville after returning from a business trip.  Taxis are $35 from the airport to downtown... now if Jacksonville had a commuter rail service coming down I95 stopping at the airport (or free shuttle service to a rail station) then continuing on to the convention center that would be nice.  Even  Amtrak from up there to Beaver Street would save me some money.  Doesn't Amtrak go near the airport?   

[JTA]

To:    MetroJacksonville.com
Re:   AirJTA article

Thank you for the recent mention of AirJTA on your Website.  We’d like to update you on some upcoming changes to the AirJTA service that your members and readers may find useful.

First, despite the “ghost bus” declaration, we are proud to say that ridership on the NS-33 (AirJTA) bus has steadily increased; now nearing 90 daily riders.  Beginning September 3, JTA is also adding one later trip (departing JIA at 9:20 p.m.) to AirJTA, which we think will further increase ridership.  AirJTA will now depart Downtown every 90 minutes between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. with airport departures starting at 6:20 a.m. and running till 9:20 p.m.  The one-way trip takes approximately 30 minutes and costs $3 each way. JTA also offers free parking at its Kings Avenue surface lot for AirJTA passengers.

To further recruit new riders, we’ve added a new stop at the River City Marketplace.  We feel that adding this major employment and retail center to the route will make AirJTA even more enticing.  We expect to see not only mall employees using this route, but also those seeking new dining and shopping destinations from their airport (or Airport Road) locations.

JTA is also modifying the AirJTA route Downtown to serve more hotels.  Enroute to the Kings Avenue Parking Garage on the Southbank, AirJTA will now loop along Water Street to Newnan Street, allowing hotel guests at both the Omni and Hyatt to use the service.

We appreciate your interest and suggestions on better ways to market this important route.  We do plan to launch new promotions for AirJTA in the near future.  JTA’s original advertising was completed using grant funding.  That included an AirJTA video that plays on the baggage claim area monitors at JIA, as well as the billboard mentioned in the article.  Radio spots and print advertising campaigns were also produced. 

In addition, we also placed sandwich boards and special AirJTA signage at the airport, brochures in the information racks, and a large banner on the Kings Avenue garage.  We continue to reach out to local businesses to promote the service.  Initially, contact was made with downtown hotels and those along Airport Road.  Obviously, being a government agency, we have limited marketing dollars and must spend them wisely, so even a mention on your website helps get the word out.

If you have any questions regarding the AirJTA service, we will be happy to answer them or assist in any way we can.  Thank you again for your interest in AirJTA.

Mike Miller
Director of External Affairs
Jacksonville Transportation Authority