System Alert — Reduced Service: Due to a driver shortage, the route 5 University Connector and route 6 Riverside/Airport Connector will be suspended until further notice starting Monday, December 12. Please use the routes 3, 4, or 8 as alternative service.
Public Transportation for Juneau, Alaska
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Info: (907) 789-6901
Category: Uncategorized
Service Changes effective Monday, April 10
Capital Transit will be updating some time points for Route 1 Douglas and Route 8 Valley Express buses starting Monday, April 10, 2023. Please see changes below and the updated schedules.
Route 1 Douglas
Route 1 Douglas buses traveling towards Treadwell will depart all stops on Douglas Island 1 – 2 minutes earlier. The following time points will change:
Depart Cordova St. for Treadwell at :18 & :48
Depart Cedar Park for Treadwell at :19 & :49
Depart Douglas Post office for Treadwell at :24 & :54
All other time-points for the Route 1 will remain unchanged. Please see updated schedules.
Route 8 Valley Express
Route 8 Valley Express buses traveling on Mendenhall Loop Road and around backloop will be departing all bus stops on the Mendenhall Valley loop 3 – 4 minutes EARLIER.
Route 8 time-point changes:
Depart Valley Transit Center for back loop at :00 & :30
Depart Valley Blvd for back loop at :05 & :35
Depart Auke Bay for Valley Transit Center at :13 & :43
All other time-points for the Route 8 will remain unchanged. Please see updated schedules.
Please make sure you arrive at these bus stops a few minutes earlier to catch the bus, starting Monday, April 10th, 2023.
How to Ride to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center with Capital Transit
Approximate Travel Time
The one-way trip with Capital Transit from downtown Juneau to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center can take up to 1.5 hours, which includes a walk of about 30 minutes. The bus ride can take up to 1 hour, and the closest bus stop is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away from the Visitor Center.
There are several Cruise Ship terminals in the downtown area. Some are quite close to the Downtown Transit Center, but some terminals are up to 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away, which could result in an additional 30 minute or more walk in each direction.
NOTE:Various private tour companies offer “Glacier Shuttle” bus service or other tours from the downtown Cruise Ship terminals directly to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. These private buses normally only take about 30 minutes of total travel time from downtown to the glacier. Tickets for these private shuttles and tours can be purchased from vendor booths near the Cruise Ship terminal or on board the cruise ships, or tours can be booked in advance. Trip Advisor is just one of many sites that offer a list of tours that include the Mendenhall Glacier.
Cost
For a single ride on a Capital Transit bus, the fares are:
$2 for an adult (19 or older, including seniors)
$1 for a youth (6 – 18 years old)
FREE for children 5 or younger.
Fares must be paid in cash (coins or bills, US currency only). Drivers are not able to make change, so please have the correct fare ready when boarding the bus.
Larger bills may be used to pay for groups: for example, if you have a group of 2 adults plus 1 youth, the total fare for the group is $5, and you may pay the fare for the entire group with a five-dollar bill.
Depending on which route you take, the bus ride can take about 1 hour. Please let the bus driver know that you are going to the glacier when you board the bus, and listen for the announcement for “Dredge Lake Road” so that you do not miss your stop.
Walking between Dredge Lake Road & the Visitor Center
You can catch a bus back to the Downtown Transit Center from the Dredge Lake Road bus stops on either side of the road, after walking back from the Visitor Center:
8 VALLEY EXPRESS buses depart from Stop ID 439, but will require a free transfer at the Valley Transit Center to a 3 DOWNTOWN TC, a 4 DOWNTOWN TC, or a 8 DOWNTOWN EXPRESS bus to continue to downtown.
NOTE:On Sunday, the last bus to downtown departs from Dredge Lake Road at approximately 5:25 PM. On Monday through Saturday, the last bus to downtown departs from Dredge Lake Road at approximately 10:25 PM.
Please be at the bus stop 5 minutes before the listed departure time so that you do not miss the bus.
If you have any additional questions, please call Capital Transit at 907-789-6901, or check out the links below.
Capital Transit offers a Ride Free Zone (see the Capital Transit Ride Free Zone Map below) for locals and visitors who may experience mobility issues or are interested in getting to the Capitol, the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, the Dimond Courthouse, the hostel or other locations at the top of the hill.
There are four bus stops in the Ride Free Zone – the Marine Parking Garage, on Franklin Street near the old Gunakadeit Park (Pocket Park), on Fourth Street near Rainbow Foods and the Downtown Transit Center.
Using Google Maps Transit Directions to Explore Route Changes Effective Monday, November 7
Post Summary:Google Maps Transit Directions can be used to explore trip options with our updated routes if you set the “Depart at” or “Arrive by” date to “Mon, Nov 7” or later. Step by step instructions are provided below.
Capital Transit buses will start using the new Valley Transit Center on Mendenhall Mall Road on Monday, November 7, 2022. Our routes have been updated to accommodate this new facility and to make our service more consistent, more reliable, and easier to use.
If you are looking for more details about how these changes will impact you, Google Maps Transit Directions can help you explore route changes and new trip options that will be available starting on Monday, November 7, 2022.
If you are already familiar with Google Maps Transit Directions, as long as you set the “Depart at” or “Arrive by” date to November 7, 2022 or later, you will see the options available for that trip with our newly updated routes.
If you aren’t familiar with Google Maps Transit Directions, the rest of this post will give you step by step instructions for how to plan a trip with our new routes.
These instructions are for using Google Maps with a web browser on a computer. However, the steps will be very similar if you are using Google Maps on a smart phone.
Open Google Maps by clicking on the link (Google Maps will open in a new tab), or by typing “maps.google.com” into the address bar in your browser. You should see something similar to the screen shot below:
2. Open the “Directions” pane
Click on the blue “Directions” icon to open the Directions pane (circled in red in the screenshot below).
Step 2: Click on the “Directions” icon.
3. Select “Transit” directions by clicking on the “Transit” icon
Click on the gray “Transit” icon to select Transit Directions (circled in red in the screenshot below).
Step 3: Click on the “Transit” icon.
4. Select the starting point of your trip by typing the name or clicking on the map
The next step is to select the starting point for your trip. You have a couple of options:
Click a location on the map
or
Click on the “starting point” text box and start typing the name of your starting point. As you type, matching place names will appear as suggestions, and you can click on a suggestion to set your starting point.
For this example, we’ll click on the “starting point” text box, and start typing “Valley Boulevard”. When the proper suggested location pops up below, we’ll click on that suggestion:
Step 4: Select the starting point of the trip.
5. Choose the destination of your trip by typing the name or clicking on the map
Similar to the previous step, you can choose your trip destination by clicking on the map or typing the destination into the “Choose destination” text box.
We’ll start typing “Downtown Transit Center”, and select the appropriate suggestion when it appears:
Step 5: Choose trip destination.
6. Change “Leave now” to “Arrive by” (or “Depart at”, as appropriate)
Below the “Destination” box, change “Leave now” to either “Depart at” or “Arrive by”.
For this example, we’ll select “Arrive by”, since we want to arrive by 7:30 AM.
7. Click on the time box to set the departure or arrival time for your trip
In the time box, type or select your desired arrival or departure time.
In this example we’ll change it to 7:30 AM.
Step 7: Set arrival (or departure) time for trip.
8. Click on the date box or calendar icon to select a date on or after Mon, Nov 7
In the date box, use the calendar to select a date. To see results for the new route changes, make sure you select a date on or after Mon, Nov 7. Also, schedules on Saturday or Sunday will be different from Monday – Friday schedules, so make sure you select a date that matches the day of the week you will be traveling.
For this example, we’ll choose Mon, Nov 7.
Step 8: Set the “Arrive by” (or “Depart at”) date to on or after Mon, Nov 7.
9. Explore the trip options
After completing the steps above, you’ll see a list of possible trips, with a summary of each trip on the left. The trip will also be displayed on the map.
The trip summaries on the left will include departure and arrival times, route numbers for buses you’d be riding for that trip, and the overall travel time, including estimated walking time to and from bus stops.
NOTE: The general price for all single, one-way trips, even those including transfers, is $2.00. At the time of writing, the cost for trips involving transfers might mistakenly be shown as $4.00 or more. The correct price for these trips is $2.00, and we are working to correct this error.
Click on a specific trip to see it displayed on the map. Click on the “Details” button for more information about that trip. For example, we’ll click on the first trip “Details” to find out more about that particular option:
Step 9: Explore trip options.
10. See the details of a specific trip
After clicking on “Details” for a specific trip, you’ll see more specific information about that trip, including walking time, transfers, etc.
Step 10: See the details of a specific trip option.
You may need to scroll down in the left pane to see all of the details of the trip. For this particular trip:
You walk about 5 minutes to the bus stop at Mendenhall Loop Road and Mendenhall Boulevard
You get on the Route 10 bus (which will display “10 Valley TC” on the sign on the front of the bus) at 6:56 AM.
You ride the bus 5 minutes to the Valley Transit Center, arriving at 7:01 AM.
You transfer to the “9 Egan Express” bus which leaves from Platform 5 at the Valley Transit Center at 7:05 AM.
You arrive at the Downtown Transit Center at 7:22 AM.
11. If desired, use the back arrow to return to step 9 and explore other trip options
If you want to see the details of other trip options, use the back arrow on the browser to go back to a list of trips, and repeat the process by clicking on other trip options.
Step 11: If you want to explore other trip options, click on the back arrow to return to step 9.
Mendenhall Valley Transit Center Opening and Upcoming Schedule Changes (Effective Monday, November 7th)
A significantly updated Capital Transit bus schedule will go into effect on Monday, November 7, with the opening of the new Valley Transit Center (VTC) on Mendenhall Mall Road.
The opening of the Valley Transit Center, which will be the new bus transfer location for Valley routes, has created a valuable opportunity to make long-overdue updates to ensure reliable and consistent service for all passengers on all routes. The regular schedules haven’t been updated since 2016. Time stops in the current schedule are no longer realistic and buses frequently run late, causing passengers to miss transfers or arrive later than expected.
Accordingly, Capital Transit spent months planning, gathering feedback from riders, hosting open houses, gathering feedback from bus drivers, and obtaining input from an objective transit planning contractor to update the schedule within our existing budget and staffing. The overwhelming majority (76%) of the 363 bus passengers surveyed prefer a simpler network with more consistent service and more reliable transfers to a more complex network with more “specialty” commuter routes (24%). Capital Transit has incorporated this feedback into the updated schedule.
The upcoming bus schedule changes will go into effect on November 7. Printed schedules with the updates are available on the buses now. Links to the new schedule are included at the bottom of this page.
A summary of the changes compared to our current service is listed below:
Core Service (Routes 1, 3, 4) is similar to the current schedules, except:
Mendenhall Loop Counterclockwise Route 3 and Mendenhall Loop Clockwise Route 4 will remain on Glacier Highway through the Lemon Creek area but will no longer make stops on Davis Avenue and Lemon Creek Road, where less than 2% of riders get on or off the bus. This trade off will result in decreased travel times and more reliable transfers for a much larger number of passengers who ride the Route 3 or 4. In addition, service has been increased for the Route 7, which has stops on Davis Avenue and Lemon Creek Road.
Mendenhall Loop Clockwise Route 4 includes new morning inbound and outbound runs Monday through Friday.
Express and Commuter routes:
University Express Routes 5 and Riverside Express Route 6 will now only operate in the Valley, and will be timed to make transfers to/from the Downtown/Valley Express Route 8 at the VTC. (Please note that during the current driver shortage, the routes 5, 6, and 8 only operate during peak morning and afternoon periods.)
Lemon Creek Express Route 7, which stops on Davis Avenue and Lemon Creek Road, includes additional trips from downtown in the afternoon and early evening.
Downtown/Valley Express Route 8 routing and timing has been adjusted, and includes additional inbound and outbound trips Monday – Friday, improved service to the popular Fred Meyer bus stop, and transfers at the VTC to the University Connector Route 5 and Riverside/Airport Connector Route 6. (Please note that during the current driver shortage, the routes 5, 6, and 8 only operate during peak morning and afternoon periods.)
Mendenhall Valley Express Route 9 has been changed to the Egan Express, running several morning and afternoon trips between the VTC and Downtown Transit Center.
Mendenhall Valley Commuter Route 10 has changed to the Taku Commuter, and includes several morning runs to the VTC where passengers can then connect to the Route 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and/or 9 buses.
Douglas to Valley Express Route 11, North Douglas Route 12, Mendenhall/Riverside Commuter Route 14, Valley/UAS Express Route 15, and Taku Express Route 16 have been eliminated. Portions of Routes 11, 14, 15, and 16 have been incorporated into other new or updated routes.
For more information about bus route changes, contact Matt Carpenter at Capital Transit at (907) 789-6901. For more information about the VTC facility, contact Alec Venechuk at (907) 586-0800 ext. 4187.
See the PDFs below for more detailed route and schedule information.
Capital Transit is making additional temporary adjustments to its service due to a continuing shortage of available drivers.Capital Transit selected the following routes for temporary suspension because they have the least impact on riders and core routes of service. Beginning Friday July 15th, the following changes will go into effect:
The morning and afternoon Route 12-North Douglas is cancelled.
The afternoon Route 8-Valley Express leaving the DTC at 3:35 is cancelled. Please catch the Route 4 for service to the Valley. All other Route 8 service is operating as scheduled.
The morning Route 16-Taku Express is cancelled. Please catch the Route 10-Mendenhall Valley Commuter for a comparable replacement commuter bus service.
Due to the continuing driver shortage, Capital Transit will be making service changes to some Express and Commuter routes starting Monday, May 2, 2022. There are no changes to Core Service routes.
Route 5 University Express service is suspended until further notice.
Route 8 Valley Express resumes full afternoon service.
Route 10 Mendenhall Valley Commuter resumes morning service.
Route 11 Douglas to Valley Express morning service remains suspended until further notice.
Bartlett Site Improvement Project starts Wednesday, March 16
Construction for the City and Borough of Juneau’s Bartlett Site Improvement Project will begin this Wednesday, March 16, and end in October. The project involves reconstruction of portions of Hospital Drive, Hospital Access Road, and reconstruction of the back parking lot past the emergency room entrance. During construction, drivers, bus riders, and pedestrians will experience the following traffic changes:
Hospital Drive and Hospital Access Road will be closed in phases. Bartlett Regional Hospital, Johnson Youth Center, and all other businesses will be accessible by traveling Salmon Creek Lane or Hospital Drive depending on the phase of construction.
The Capital Transit bus stop at Bartlett Regional Hospital will be temporarily moved to the parking lot across from the Juneau Medical Center. Capital Transit will conduct bus service for the hospital campus by traveling on Salmon Creek Lane and turning around on Hospital Access Road. The new bus route will continue throughout the duration of construction.
Pedestrian access will be provided on Hospital Drive and Hospital Access Road for as much of the construction project as possible.
Traffic control signs will alert all involved the direction of allowed travel. Traffic control measures, lights and signs will be placed to ensure the safety of all. Please use caution in this area and follow all traffic control and signage.
The Bartlett Site Improvement Project also includes the continuing addition of a new water main on Hospital Drive from the Johnson Youth Center to the entrance to the registration entrance; other water system improvements; and new sidewalks.
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For more information on the project, contact CBJ Project Manager John Nelson at 907-957-2187 or John.Nelson@juneau.org, or Justin Kanouse with DOWL at 907-723-9701 or jkanouse@dowl.com. For more information on Capital Transit, call 907-789-6901.
Service changes to Express and Commuter routes Monday, December 27th
Starting Monday, December 27th Capital Transit will be implementing the following changes:
· Route 15 Valley/UAS Express will resume service, Monday-Friday.
· Route 6 Riverside Express will depart the airport at 38 minutes after the hour, and then head directly to Downtown from the Nugget Mall at 42 minutes after the hour.
· Route 12 North Douglas morning run will go directly to the Downtown Transit Center, and then continue as the Route 15 Valley/UAS Express at 7:45 AM.
Due to driver shortage, both the Route 10 Mendenhall Valley Commuter and the Route 11 Douglas to Valley Express remain suspended until further notice.
Printable PDF of revised express and commuter schedule available here.
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