January/February LYNX & Votran Service Changes

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In the coming weeks, both LYNX and Votran will be having their next round of service changes. The LYNX changes are effective Sunday, January 27 and Votran's are in February (per Votran's usual mantra, they have not announced a date for these changes, more on that in that section of the post).

LYNX

Let's start with the LYNX changes first. The changes include minor scheduling changes, routing changes, and a new route. Note, LYNX calls their routes "Links", so I will too.

New Service:
  • Link 709 - A one-way circulator around the Downtown Kissimmee area, connecting to SunRail, Amtrak, and other local routes at the Kissimmee Intermodal Station.
Route Adjustments:
  • Links 21 & 37 - The bus stop at the Valencia College West Campus will be moved from Valencia College Rd to near the Nursing & Fitness Center.
  • NeighborLink 632 - The zone will be extended north to serve the Tupperware Headquarters campus.
Schedule Adjustments:
  • Link 8 - the 4:51am Weekday Inbound trip will now start at 4:43am
  • LYMMO Orange-Downtown - The last trip on Friday & Saturdays from CentroPlex Garage will now be at 10:45pm. 
  • LYMMO Grapefruit - The last trip on Friday & Saturdays from Church & Magnolia will now be at 10:45pm.
  • Link 416 - The 5:40am from Walmart and the 1:55pm trip from Haines City Plaza will now serve Haines City High School
  • Links 11, 18, 38, 50, 56, 57, 108, 111, 407, 441, and 622 - Minor Schedule Adjustments (this usually means timepoints may be adjusted to allow better on-time performance).

Votran

Unlike LYNX, Votran only makes schedule changes when needed (LYNX makes changes several times a year). The changes include a new route, and a few minor routing changes.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Votran does not state when these changes will occur. What they'll do instead is post ON the day they change that the changes are now effective with no warning. Chances are they'll also not post the schedule for Route 25 or the modified schedule for Routes 21 and 22 until days after the changes (like when the 7 and 11 had changes last year).

New Service:
  • Route 25 - This route will run from the DuPont Lakes Plaza to the new Halifax Health Hospital near I-4 via Howland Blvd. The route will connect to Routes 21, 22, and 33 at DuPont Lakes and to 21 and 22 at the Deltona Library. The schedule has not been provided yet, but I imagine it'll operate hourly. 
Routing Changes:
  • Routes 21 & 22 - Will no longer serve the old Deltona Community Center on Lakeshore Drive, the buses will instead turn around at the United Methodist Children's Home on Lakeshore Drive. Note, the new Community Center will be served by Route 25.
  • Routes 20, 21, 22, 23 - Per the request of the property owner, these routes will no longer enter the property of Crowne Center Plaza in Orange City (this is the Publix & Bealls plaza). 
    • For Routes 20 and 23 this simply means the buses will pass the plaza on Enterprise Rd. 
    • For Routes 21 and 22, I'm not really sure how Votran will make this change (either they'll be routed via Threadgill Pl and Enterprise Rd or they'll not serve Crowne Center at all), since it wasn't specified.
    • This is a major change as for many people along these routes, this is the only supermarket. Now forcing riders to walk across the parking lot with groceries in the Florida heat or rain is not good. But, I imagine when the 20 became half-hourly that was the beginning of talks about removing buses from the plaza since many more buses are traversing the plaza.

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