After a sustained period of time when Rock Region METRO was not able to attain enough fixed route operators to implement its R.I.D.E. 2020 — or Route Innovation, Development and Evaluation 2020 – comprehensive operational analysis plan to improve and expand METRO’s fixed route bus service, METRO began planning updated fixed route bus schedules in November 2024 to improve the passenger experience and driver experience within the constraints of the agency’s current annual operating budget. This plan was adapted mid-process in April 2025 to address a shortage of fixed route operators causing multiple emergency day-of service cuts.
The plan, slated to be implemented Monday, June 30, 2025, prioritizes preserving higher ridership service and weekday service over weekend service and as many pulses (coordinated schedule times that allow multiple buses to meet at a shared connection point for transfers) as possible, as well as using excess layover time in trips to improve breaks at the River Cities Travel Center for drivers. Although frequency of service has been reduced in some areas to address the number of drivers that can feasibly operate service each weekday, Saturday and Sunday, this reduction should stabilize daily service for the riders who depend on METRO to get to jobs, education, health care and other meaningful places.
The Process
METRO engaged its professional scheduling and planning services consulting firms, which have deep knowledge of the METRO fixed route system, to review and analyze one full year of service data to provide service change recommendations.
A schedule run time analysis was completed for each route, establishing new minimum layover times for each route trip and streamlining headways to create additional pulses at the River Cities Travel Center, where 13 of METRO’s 15 bus routes terminate, and the Midtown Transfer Hub, a collection of four stops along Midtown Avenue in Little Rock where four bus routes intersect. Schedule run times were increased or decreased as needed, based on historical runtime data amid multiple drivers. Service reductions prioritized weekday higher-ridership routes and considered the context of the overall system, including areas where different services are overlapped or adjacent.
METRO is hosting three public information meetings June 4 and 5, 2025 in Little Rock and North Little Rock to outline the service changes in advance of the slated June 30 launch.
[For more information or to request this information in an alternate format or translated into another language, please call (501) 375-6717.]
Rock Region METRO Hosts Three Public Information Meetings in June 2025.
The events are free and open to the public and allow community members to discuss annual service enhancements.
Meeting dates, times and locations are:
Wednesday, June 4, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Laman Public Library Room 124, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock
Wednesday, June 4, 5:30-7 p.m., Drew Room, Statehouse Convention Center, 101 E. Markham St., Little Rock
Thursday, June 5, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Dee Brown Library Meeting Room, 6325 Baseline Rd., Little Rock
Schedule Changes
There are two main components to the June 30, 2025 fixed route service change: The fixed route schedule updates (for which planning began in November 2024) and the service reduction from those pending schedule changes (for which planning began in April 2025, to address a loss of 18.5 percent of METRO’s fixed operator employees in a roughly 5-month period). The service reduction portion of the plan is needed to stabilize the reliability of service, which is already being cut on a near-daily level due to the driver shortage.
The schedule changes include:
- an increase in pulses (coordinated schedule times that allow multiple buses to meet at a shared connection point for transfers) at the travel center,
- minimum trip layover into almost each trip,
- using as much excess layover as possible in trips to maximize driver break opportunities,
- interlining buses and drivers (or sharing buses) between two or more routes to save as much service as possible (currently Route 3 Baptist Medical Center and Route 14 Rosedale are interlined, for example, but they are still two separate routes; they share buses and drivers between the two routes), and
- lowest-productivity (lowest ridership) first and last trips of the day trimmed based on statistical analysis.
The schedule reductions include:
Reductions in frequency: No fixed routes or portions of routes are being removed from service altogether. Rather, there is one weekday route experiencing a reduction in frequency, three Saturday routes experiencing a reduction in frequency and two Sunday routes experiencing a reduction in frequency.
Weekday:
Route 22 University Ave./Mabelvale is dropping from a 35-minute frequency to a 60-minute frequency on weekdays. When feasible, riders may consider whether other services can help them complete a trip in areas near Route 22, such as using Route 23 Southwest/Baseline (for trips with the Southwest Little Rock area of overlap with Route 22), the John Barrow Road microtransit zone (for trips west of University Ave., south of 12th Street and north of Colonel Glenn) and Route 14 Rosedale (for destinations around the University & Asher intersection).
Saturdays:
Route 22 University Ave./Mabelvale is dropping from a 30-minute frequency to a 80-minute frequency on Saturdays.
Route 3 Baptist Medical Center is dropping from a 25- to 45-minute frequency to a 70-minute frequency on Saturdays. Riders needing to make east-west trips between the River Cities Travel Center and Midtown may consider whether Route 5 West Markham could be an alternate route to use.
Route 4 Levy-Amboy is dropping from a 60-minute frequency to a 70-minute frequency on Saturdays. When feasible, Route 4 riders may consider whether they can use the Levy-Amboy Zone to complete a trip in the Levy-Amboy area. The Levy-Amboy microtransit zone currently has a greater Saturday span of service then the bus Route 4, as it was designed to complement pre-pandemic levels of Saturday service, and none of the fixed routes have had pre-pandemic service restored (due to the prolonged nationwide shortage of fixed route operators).
Sundays:
Route 3 Baptist Medical Center is dropping from a 45-minute frequency to a 75-minute frequency on Sundays.
Route 16 UA – Little Rock is dropping from a 58-minute frequency to a 75-minute frequency on Sundays. Route 16 Sunday ridership has been low-ridership over the last 12 months and possibly longer, possibly because it terminates on a university campus, which is busier during the week than weekend.
There is still no Sunday service: for Routes 1 Pulaski Heights, 4 Levy-Amboy and 6 Granite Mountain.
Schedule Information Effective Monday June 30, 2025
A basic schedule PDF of all route schedules effective Monday, June 30, 2025 can be downloaded by clicking here; schedules will appear on the website in their usual place on Monday, June 30. These times reflect service frequency reductions noted earlier on this webpage, low-productivity first and last trips of the day cuts and the intentional coordination of pulses (coordinated schedule times that allow multiple buses to meet at a shared connection point for transfers), as well as minimum layover times built into most trips, with excess layover times built into schedules to provide as many operator breaks as possible while maintaining adequate trip schedules for the public.
Route 1 Pulaski Heights
Route 1 Pulaski Heights has been detoured off most of its 2nd Street Outbound/From Downtown/To Keightley & T Street Streets route pattern and is using 3rd Street to exit the downtown area. This will continue with a permanent shift to using 3rd Street to exit downtown, with the bus turning left/west from Center Street to 3rd Street as it exits the downtown area. This linked map shows the current detour, which is almost like the new route pattern, with the exception that Route 1 Pulaski Heights will not use 2nd Street at all (it’s currently turning left from 2nd Street onto Broadway).
Route 11 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Drive
Route 11 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Drive does not have a pattern change, but will no longer offer the two deviated on-demand stops on the west side of Philander Smith University, which is two blocks east of Route 14 Rosedale, three blocks north of Route 16 UA – Little Rock and five blocks east of Route 11 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Drive. This was a rarely-used service and has negative effects on Route 11 riders who depend on the route’s schedule adherence.
Pending New Interlines
As mentioned earlier, the June 30 service plan uses interlining, which is a term for sharing buses and drivers between two or more routes, to save as much service as possible (currently Route 3 Baptist Medical Center and Route 14 Rosedale are interlined, for example, but they are still two separate routes; they share buses and drives between the two routes).
New interlines for weekday, Saturday and Sunday service help preserve as much service as possible. Riders should keep in mind that interlined routes are still separate routes. This means that if passengers need to transfer between two interlined routes, they must still purchase a transfer pass on the first bus to be used on the second bus (unless they are using an “unlimited rides” pass, such as a day pass or 31-day pass), and they must exit the bus at the end of their first trip and enter the bus again on the second trip and pay their fare, either with their transfer pass , day pass or 31-day pass. Why must passengers exit and enter the same bus again? Because METRO must have passengers counted by the automatic passenger counter on each bus. The agency gains more funding to support public transit service with every counted passenger trip. Passengers must also pay the fare when taking a new route, even if the fare is part of a transfer trip and a transfer pass fare.
On Monday, June 30, Routes 3 Baptist Medical Center and 14 Rosedale will no longer be interlined. This simply means they will not be sharing a bus and driver. The route patterns for each route will remain the same, with Route 3 still operating between downtown and Shackleford Crossings and Route 14 operating between downtown and Shackleford Crossings.
Pending new interlines for Monday, June 30 are:
Weekday
Routes 1 Pulaski Heights and 2 South Main Interlined
Routes 23 Baseline/Southwest and 4 Levy/Amboy Interlined
Routes 18 McAlmont and 5 West Markham Interlined
Routes 13 UA – Pulaski Technical College and 6 Granite Mountain Interlined
Routes 14 Rosedale and 10 McCain Mall Interlined
Routes 11 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Dr. and 16 UA – Little Rock Interlined
Saturday:
Routes 1 Pulaski Heights and 10 McCain Mall Interlined
Routes 23 Baseline/Southwest, 18 McAlmont, 2 South Main and 6 Granite Mountain Interlined
Routes 3 Baptist Medical Center and 4 Levy/Amboy Interlined
Routes 5 West Markham and 14 Interlined
Routes 13 UA – Pulaski Technical College and 16 UA – Little Rock Interlined
Routes 18 McAlmont and 23 Baseline/Southwest Interlined
Sunday:
Routes 18 McAlmont and 2 South Main Interlined
Routes 16 UA – Little Rock and 3 Baptist Medical Center Interlined
Routes 5 West Markham and 14 Interlined
Routes 10 McCain Mall and 23 Baseline/Southwest Interlined
Routes 13 UA – Pulaski Technical College and 11 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Drive Interlined
There is still no Sunday service: for Routes 1 Pulaski Heights, 4 Levy-Amboy and 6 Granite Mountain.
Bookmark rrmetro.org, sign up for our enewsletter at the bottom of this page (place your email address in the first field and name in the second and click Subscribe), follow @rrmetro on Facebook and Twitter, email us using the contact form at the bottom of the Questions/Contact Us link, call us at 501-375-6717 and mail us at the administration address below.
