New express bus connects Detroit to Somerset mall

Detroit’s bus drivers union has called it a giveaway to wealthy suburbanites, but riders on the new refleX, an express bus service connecting the city and its northern suburbs, are offering high praise.

“What a wonderful change,” said Jameelah Raby, an Eastpointe resident staying temporarily with her sister in Detroit.

Raby and her 9-year-old son were riding a refleX bus north of 8 Mile on Gratiot Avenue on a recent Monday afternoon as she described her experience. They were heading to Roseville to pick up Raby’s 14-year-old daughter from high school.

“Swell, everything was just swell,” said Raby, 40.

Clean. Air-conditioned. Helpful drivers.

Raby’s face practically beamed as she spoke about the service run by the Detroit area’s two primary bus systems — the Detroit Department of Transportation and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation.

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For Raby, the new service means an opportunity for quicker, more seamless trips between her sister’s home in Detroit and her daughter’s school in Macomb County. Raby had an unexpected change of routine recently after her car broke down while work was being done on her home in Eastpointe.

“My life just changed in the blink of an eye,” she said.

Since Labor Day weekend, the refleX’s teal and dark blue buses have been traveling up and down Woodward and Gratiot avenues, which are two of the Detroit area’s busiest bus corridors.

The limited-stop routes mean a return of all-day and weekend transferless bus service between Detroit and the suburbs, something that has been missing since SMART instituted cuts in 2011. The routes connect either the Somerset Collection in Troy or the North River Road park and ride lot in Mt. Clemens to downtown Detroit at Farmer and Monroe, although the northern end of the Gratiot corridor is one stop shorter (Main and Cass for southbound or Gratiot and Cass for northbound buses) on weekends and holidays. On weekdays, both corridors have 14 stops. Buses do not go to the Rosa Parks Transit Center in Detroit.

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The service also showcases a practically unheard of level of cooperation between DDOT and SMART and offers a taste of the kinds of changes planned if voters in Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties approve a 1.2-mill property tax in November to fund the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan’s master plan. The RTA, whose logo is emblazoned on the buses along with those of SMART and DDOT, functions as an umbrella organization for the three-year pilot bus services.

Raby’s enthusiasm was echoed by many of the riders who talked to the Free Press during four separate refleX trips. The trips started and ended at the North River Road lot and included southeastern Macomb County, downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, southern Oakland County and the Somerset Collection (the stop is near Neiman Marcus on the mall’s south side). Regular one-way fares are the same as for regular SMART and DDOT buses: $2 on the Gratiot route, which is run by SMART, and $1.50 on Woodward, which is run by DDOT. Transfers can be purchased while boarding for 25 cents.

John Collins, a well-known techno DJ, producer and promoter living in Detroit’s West Village neighborhood, was riding north on Woodward after catching the refleX in downtown Detroit.

“It’s cool. It works,” Collins said, noting that he would direct the many international visitors he sees who come to Detroit for its music and history to try the service. Those visitors, especially European travelers, are used to public transportation, he noted.

Despite the accolades, the service did have some minor hiccups during the Free Press rides. A bus driver on her first trip made a wrong turn getting to the initial stop. That bus was also a few minutes late. Otherwise, however, the buses were on time and left as scheduled. Drivers also asked riders, as they boarded, where they were headed in order to direct them to another bus if need be.

Numerous passengers were on only their first or second refleX trip or were learning about it as they boarded and some did not know it was a limited-stop route. One man tried to request a stop at 10 Mile, not realizing he would have to continue on to 11 Mile. A handful of passengers waiting at non-refleX stops also tried to flag down the buses as they passed.

Fewer stops also mean a faster trip. For the Free Press, the trip from the park-and-ride at North River Road in Mt. Clemens to downtown Detroit took 55 minutes. To go from downtown to Somerset took 61 minutes and from Somerset back to downtown, 59 minutes; and the trip from downtown to the Mt. Clemens park and ride was 58 minutes. Often, such trips outside of weekday peak hours would involve transfers and take up to two hours, some riders said.

Most of the refleX stops have signs marked with an "R" and the word, "REFLEX," although the Somerset stop appeared to be without any signage. Mario Morrow, a spokesman for the RTA, said a sign would be coming to that location, too.

Ridership has not been particularly heavy during the refleX’s initial two weeks, but it is a largely unfamiliar new service and is expected to increase. Morrow explained that an “aggressive” campaign to formally advertise the refleX, which will include radio spots and posters, should roll out in coming days. Average weekday ridership during the first four days was at 380 on Woodward (No. 498) and at 453 passengers on Gratiot (No. 598). On the first Saturday, ridership was at 533 on the Gratiot corridor, which also has a link (No. 599) to Midtown during peak hours Monday through Friday.

The service has had its detractors. The union representing DDOT drivers has come out strongly against the service, describing it as a giveaway to wealthy suburbanites while Detroiters continue to experience long waits on crosstown routes. Fred Westbrook Jr., the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26, said Woodward and Gratiot were already well-served by buses, although transit advocates have said the additional service is welcome news.

And some of the debate leading to the agreement over funding for the three-year pilot project — it’s estimated to cost about $5.6 million per year — was described generously as contentious.

But the service resolves one of the key gripes for regular riders on two of the busiest transit corridors in the region:  No more switching buses between the two bus systems during off-peak hours and on weekends. A rider can catch a refleX bus in downtown Detroit or on one of its other stops on the Woodward route and travel to the region’s main destination shopping mall in Oakland County or travel to and from the park and ride lot in Mt. Clemens and all spots in between on the Gratiot route, including a stop near Macomb Mall.

Had the refleX service been in place in early 2015, Detroit's "walking man," James Robertson, might have spent less time on his marathon commutes. The Free Press introduced the world to Robertson in February 2015, detailing his 21-mile trek each day to get to and from work. The last leg involved walking after 1 a.m. from the DDOT state fairground bus station at 8 Mile and Woodward, to his home on Kenilworth near the Boston-Edison neighborhood, because DDOT bus service had stopped by the time he rode a SMART bus from Somerset to the fairgrounds.

With refleX, buses are typically scheduled to leave each stop every 45 minutes to an hour, and they run after midnight Mondays through Saturdays. End-of-day Sunday and holiday hours are a bit earlier, but still go past 9 p.m. And the earliest bus is scheduled to leave the North River Road lot in Mt. Clemens at 5 a.m.  weekdays.

Jasper Sams, 29, of Clinton Township who was traveling on the Gratiot corridor, estimated that the service would cut his travel time by more than half on his trips to and from the Wayne County Community College District in Detroit. Sams also has to commute to his job at the Steak ‘n Shake in Madison Heights.

“I don’t have a license, so this is my best way of getting around,” Sams said.

Susan Meinberg of Huntington Woods is a criminal defense attorney with an office at the Penobscot Building in downtown Detroit. Meinberg said she and a group of fellow SMART bus riders have eagerly awaited the service since they first heard in January that it was in the planning stages. She noted that it fills the gap left by the 2011 SMART cuts.

Meinberg would like to see an additional stop downtown and a parking lot on Nine Mile but otherwise sings the service's praises, and ponders using it to get back and forth from a host of events in Detroit. She has been a bus rider since her college days at Wayne State University in the 1970s, but owns two cars as a transportation option.

“I love it,” she said while riding the Woodward bus into Detroit. “This is awesome. … And it runs on weekends. What more could you want?”

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @_ericdlawrence. Staff writer Bill Laitner contributed to this report.

About refleX

What is refleX? A limited-stop, express bus service operated jointly by DDOT and SMART on Woodward and Gratiot avenues. Buses are teal and dark blue.

It's all in the name: refleX stands for REgional FLexible EXpress.

Service: Both routes begin or end at Monroe and Farmer near Campus Martius in downtown Detroit. The northern end of the Woodward corridor is at the Somerset Collection; and the northern end on weekdays for the Gratiot line is at the North River Road park and ride lot in Mt. Clemens. On weekends and holidays, the northern end of the Gratiot route is at Main and Cass in Mt. Clemens (southbound) or Gratiot and Cass (northbound) in Mt. Clemens. Riders can board or leave at any of the designated stops along the way. Buses travel primarily on Woodward and Gratiot, but on the northbound Woodward route, for example, buses leave Woodward at Adams to get to Somerset.

Buses: Four buses on each route with a spare available if needed.

Routes: Woodward (No. 498), and Gratiot (No. 598). The Gratiot corridor also has a separate connection to Midtown Detroit (No. 599), which operates on a limited basis during weekday peak hours.

Cost: Regular fares are $1.50 on the Woodward corridor and $2 on Gratiot. Discounted fares are in effect for seniors, the disabled and students or youth riders. You'll need to have cash or a pass.

For information: www.rtamichigan.org/reflex/