Public Hearing
Proposed Changes for the 2025–2026 Service Year
MTD's Planning team reviews system schedules annually and offers suggestions to improve service. Public meetings are scheduled every spring to present the recommendations and solicit public feedback on the proposed changes. This page will be updated regularly to provide important information to keep our customers informed throughout the process.
Save the Dates
Public Feedback Period
May 4 - May 17, 2025
If you cannot attend the live events, you can still engage! A recording of the Zoom presentation will be uploaded to this page for extended viewing, along with a comment form. A list of proposed changes and all collected feedback has also been posted below.
Live Zoom Presentation + Q&A
May 6, 2025 | 12:00p
This is a recording of the virtual public hearing by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), which was held on May 6, 2025. The hearing discussed proposed service changes for 2025-2026. Key changes include discontinuing the fixed route service to Marketplace Mall and adjustments to several routes.
Drop-in Public Hearing
May 8, 2025 | 4:00p - 6:00p
MTD Staff will be available for casual drop-in discussion at MTD's Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign. This event is an informal opportunity to explore proposed service changes for the upcoming 2025-2026 service year through visual aids and one-on-one discussion.
Champaign Farmer's Market
May 13, 2025 | 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
In addition to our virtual and in-person public hearings, MTD will attend the first Champaign Farmers Market of the season to collect public feedback on proposed service changes for the 2025-2026 service year.
MTD scheduled two live opportunities, virtual and in-person (listed above), for the community to learn about the proposed changes and actively engage to provide feedback to MTD Staff.
In addition to the live engagement opportunities, community comments can be submitted in four ways:
Web: Contact Us form
Email: mtdweb@mtd.org
Phone: 217.384.8188
By Mail: Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, 1101 E. University Ave., Urbana, IL 61802; Attn. Karl Gnadt
Comments will be accepted through Saturday, May 17. All questions and comments submitted, along with MTD’s responses, will be documented on this public hearing page. After the feedback period, MTD prepares a final plan for service changes to be implemented in the Fall for the new service year, which will begin on Sunday, August 10 this year. Final service changes will be published on MTD’s website, social media, and in the upcoming 2025 - 2026 edition of the Maps & Schedules Book.
Virtual Public Hearing Recording
Summary of Proposed Changes
No Fixed-Route Service to Market Place Mall; Modified Service to Mercury at FedEx
At the request of the property owners, MTD will no longer provide fixed-route service to Market Place Mall once the new service year begins. Having this access prohibited has, however, given MTD the opportunity to provide the community with additional, improved service to both Champaign Walmart and Urbana Meijer.
Because our access to Market Place has been removed, MTD has proposed routing changes for the 1/100 Yellow and 2/20 Red routes – dropping off passengers at the southern entrance of the property at Neil Street and Center, near the former Za’s and Red Robin restaurants – and some related schedule modifications. MTD’s ADA Paratransit service, MTD Access, will still be allowed to serve the property.
Currently, the 1/100 Yellow and 2/20 Red routes serve the northeast entrance at Market Place Mall, with the 2/20 Red providing limited service to the Apollo & Mercury area near FedEx and the Ashland Park Subdivision.
1/100 Yellow Changes
In the new service year, the 1 Yellow Weekday Daytime, 100 Yellow Weekday Evening, 100 Yellow Saturday, and 100 Yellow Sunday will no longer serve Market Place Mall, and will instead operate from Market to Marketview to Neil to Town Center, and resume regular routing through Champaign Walmart.
Occasional diversions will be made to serve Mercury at FedEx via Interstate to Prospect to Olympian to Apollo to Mercury to Market to Olympian to Prospect to Interstate and will serve Walmart again before heading south. These changes are shown in the map below, with the black line of “Xs” illustrating areas that will no longer be served. Diversions to serve Mercury at FedEx are shown with the yellow dashed line.
While there will be no schedule changes to 100 Yellow Weekday Evening, 100 Yellow Saturday, or 100 Yellow Sunday service south of Interstate 74, proposed changes to Mercury at FedEx and Walmart are listed below:
- 100 Yellow Weekday Evening: Mercury at FedEx will be served at 10:20p and 11:20p; Walmart arrival two minutes earlier, departure seven minutes later.
- 100 Yellow Saturday: Mercury at FedEx will be served at 7:07a, 1:37p, 6:07p, 7:07p, 10:37p and 11:37p; Walmart arrival two minutes earlier, departure five minutes later.
- 100 Yellow Sunday: Walmart arrival two minutes earlier, departure five minutes later.
2/20 Red Enhanced Service to Ashland Park, Public Health, and Champaign Walmart
Currently, the 2 Red provides limited service to the Apollo & Mercury area and the Ashland Park subdivision, and while the 2U Red serves the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (C-UPHD) on every trip, the 2C Red only serves C-UPHD upon request.
In the new service year, because the 2 Red will travel along Neil instead of Market, MTD is proposing serving the Ashland Park subdivision on every trip of the 2U Red, and C-UPHD on every trip of both the 2C Red and 2U Red. This means the 2 Red will operate the same routing for the entire service day, providing greater frequency to a larger service area. These changes are shown in the map below, with the black line of “Xs” illustrating areas that will no longer be served, and the solid line illustrating the areas that will experience improved frequency.
2U/C Red
20 Red
In the new service year, the 20 Red will also travel along Neil instead of Market, and will continue Town Center to Boardwalk to Champaign Meijer, then to Prospect, and now serve Champaign Walmart. This modified routing is shown in the map below, with the black line of “Xs” illustrating areas that will no longer be served, and the solid line illustrating the updated routing.
Additional 2/20 Red Service Proposed for Southeast Urbana
The changes being made to the 2/20 Red route because of discontinued service to Market Place Mall have allowed us the opportunity to propose additional service to Southeast Urbana. In response to the South Ridge annexation, MTD proposes moving the 2 Red from Trails Dr. to Marc Trail Dr. in the Myra Ride subdivision. This change in routing will operate for the entire service day, instead of what is now only limited service. These proposed changes are shown in the map below, with the black line of “Xs” illustrating the area that will no longer be served, and the solid line illustrating the updated routing.
2 Red
20 Red Saturday
In addition to serving Myra Ridge throughout the service day, MTD is also proposing extending the 20 Red routing to the Urbana Meijer on Saturdays, instead of ending the route at Silver & Philo.
Additional Adjustments – Holiday Park, Transfers from FedEx at Illinois Terminal, Perkins & Eastern Service, Extended 6E Orange to University & Cottage Grove
180 Lime: Currently, the 180 Lime travels on Duncan between William and John in the Holiday Park neighborhood. To provide additional service to this neighborhood on evenings and weekends, MTD is proposing extending the route to Goldenview between William and John for all trips. This will result in minor schedule changes of one to two minutes at select timepoints.
70E Grey: MTD is proposing changing the 10:48p 70E Grey Weekday Evening trip to 10:50p at Illinois Terminal to better accommodate transfers from the 100S Yellow that serves Mercury at FedEx.
10E Gold: MTD is proposing adding an additional 10E Gold trip from Lot E-14 at 6:55p to Perkins & Eastern.
6E Orange: MTD is proposing extending the last 6E Orange trip of the day to University & Cottage Grove, instead of ending at Lincoln Square.
Middle School and High School Trip Adjustments
In response to changed routing near Market Place Mall and the opening of the new Urbana Sixth Grade Center, MTD has proposed some changes to both morning and afternoon school trips serving local middle schools and high schools. The proposed changes are listed below. We are confident that the new proposed routing and schedules will improve schedule adherence for many school trips.
As the new school year approaches this fall, families are encouraged to visit the Schools page at mtd.org to re-plan school trips for their students before the first day of class.
Morning Trips
- 1S Yellow trips to Central and Centennial: These trips will begin 8 minutes earlier. Modified routing near Town Center, Carisbrooke, and Hunter’s Pond.
- 1S Yellow to Franklin, Edison, and Jefferson: This trip will begin 8 minutes earlier. Modified routing near Town Center, Carisbrooke, and Hunter’s Pond.
- 3S Lavender to Central and Edison: This trip will begin at Town Center & Moreland.
- 5E Green to Centennial: This trip will begin 1-2 minutes earlier due to new routing on Farhills Dr.
- 7W Grey to Central and Centennial: This trip will begin 10 minutes earlier, no change to routing.
Afternoon Trips
- 1N Yellow from Franklin, Central, and Centennial: This trip will have modified routing near Town Center, Carisbrooke, and Hunter’s Pond.
- 7E Grey from Jefferson and Edison: This trip will have modified routing near Town Center, Carisbrooke, and Hunter’s Pond.
- 10E Gold to Perkins & Eastern, 6E Orange to Edgewood: Previously, these areas were served by a combined trip on one bus. In the new service year, these trips will be separated, and routing will change to serve each individual neighborhood independently.
- 5E Green to Scottswood: The two existing trips from Urbana Middle School will operate the same as the previous service year. An additional bus will serve the new Urbana Sixth Grade Center at 1602 S. Anderson.
Several concerns were raised about the proposed changes to 1 Yellow and 2 Red routing along North Market Street. Agencies such as the Salvation Army, Pregnancy Resource Center, and Merci's Refuge Residential Home are located on North Market, and provide a food pantry and many other services to at-risk populations, such as disabled veterans, those on the verge of homelessness, and vulnerable women and children. Having to walk from Marketview to these facilities would pose a significant hardship to these populations.
MTD appreciates that there are facilities and services on North Market that will no longer have front door service under this proposal. The current plan would relocate the closest bus stop to access these services to Market St. and Marketview Dr,, which is a quarter of a mile away. Based on the feedback we’ve received, staff are reevaluating our proposed service changes for the fall and will provide an update for the community at our upcoming board meeting.
What happens if the Market Place owners realize their mistake after these changes take effect and request MTD service at the mall again? Would they need to wait until the next service year?
MTD Staff will remain open to discussions with Market Place Management, should they wish to have them. Restoring service to the Mall would be a major undertaking that would require analysis and community input.
Would it be possible for the Yellow route to go north up Market Street to encompass the FedEx area but not necessarily including the loop around the mall? Kind of like the Red route did?
We reviewed options for routing north on Market Street to serve the Apollo Subdivision in lieu of going out to Walmart. However, ridership shows that Meijer and Walmart are the most popular off-campus bus stops on the 1/100 Yellow, so Staff decided against pulling that level of service. However, the Red has mostly been a Market Place destination, so we decided against routing the Red along Market Street. If we had, it would lead to additional changes south of that corridor and into Downtown. This affects more passengers and their current travel patterns. However, this proposed change to the 2 Red provides additional time along the route, which MTD has proposed allocating to all day service to Ashland Park, all day service to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, and service to the Myra Ridge and South Ridge neighborhoods in southeast Urbana.
I just reviewed your proposed changes for the upcoming service year. I live in Ashland Park, and my wife, kids, and I ride MTD frequently. Your proposal to make Ashland Park a permanent part of the 2 Red route would strongly impact my family in a positive way. I am excited by this proposed change and hope it is ratified!
We look forward to the opportunity to provide improved, more frequent service to Ashland Park in the upcoming service year!
I came to the Public Hearing to see what was really going on with the routing at Market Place Mall. I heard about the changes and wanted to see for myself what was actually happening. After looking at the current routes and the proposed routes, I’m satisfied the proposed routes sufficiently cover the routing that is being lost.
Based on the feedback we’ve received, staff are reevaluating our proposed service changes for the fall and will provide an update for the community at our upcoming board meeting.
Can you provide more service to Parkland on the weekends? This would provide more opportunities for people to participate in Parkland programming and volunteer opportunities.
We are always grateful for requests for more service. We expanded our service back to our regular full service just this past summer, and it was a multi-part process that included adding service in the spring, summer and fall. We are maintaining our level of full service, although it's been tight. We are still rebuilding from the Operator shortage as a result of the pandemic. As a result, this isn't a time when MTD is looking at expanding service. We're simply trying to provide a level of full service that we had prior to the pandemic and do the best we can with that. In the future, as we regain the capacity to expand service, we want to grow with the community and provide the service the community needs.
Can you provide more frequent service to the AMC movie theater on weekends? It’s hard to make current movie times based on the current schedules.
We are always grateful for requests for more service. We expanded our service back to our regular full service just this past summer, and it was a multi-part process that included adding service in the spring, summer and fall. We are maintaining our level of full service, although it's been tight. We are still rebuilding from the Operator shortage as a result of the pandemic. As a result, this isn't a time when MTD is looking at expanding service. We're simply trying to provide a level of full service that we had prior to the pandemic and do the best we can with that. In the future, as we regain the capacity to expand service, we want to grow with the community and provide the service the community needs.
For the Yellow trips that go by Prospect & Newton, would there be an actual stop at that location?
The Yellow trips that go by Prospect & Newton are not going to be running all day long, and they don't have a lot of time. This change will be primarily a diversion to that area. The good news is that the Red route will be serving the Newton area at Newton & Noble on every trip. We do not stop along Prospect because of speed concerns and traffic patterns.
Are there any areas that need more access to bus service that you might consider, or is that not possible? For example, East Urbana after 6:00 PM?
We are always grateful for requests for more service. We expanded our service back to our regular full service just this past summer, and it was a multi-part process that included adding service in the spring, summer and fall. We are maintaining our level of full service, although it's been tight. We are still rebuilding from the Operator shortage as a result of the pandemic. As a result, this isn't a time when MTD is looking at expanding service. We're simply trying to provide a level of full service that we had prior to the pandemic and do the best we can with that. In the future, as we regain the capacity to expand service, we want to grow with the community and provide the service the community needs.