As mentioned in our previous blog about how we launch new services, PSTA conducts a community bus plan every five years to assess our current transit conditions and set future goals for our bus network. The community bus plan helps inform the priorities of the Transit Development Plan, which is a requirement from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for all transit agencies that receive state funding. However, PSTA sees this as the perfect opportunity to receive feedback from our community to improve transportation across Pinellas County.

For this Deep Drive, we wanted to nerd out on all the details of the current community bus plan, the Connected Community Bus Network, and what sets this one apart from all the rest. We’ll also cover all the proposed improvements to our current bus network!

What is the Connected Community Bus Network?

The Connected Community Bus Network logo.

The Connected Community Bus Network (CCBN) is the name of our current community bus plan. As mentioned before, the community bus plan is an effort to improve our transit network, which PSTA conducts every five years. Each community bus plan focuses on reaching out to our community and most importantly, our riders, to hear what changes they would like to see to PSTA’s services. PSTA staff then take that feedback and see what improvements can be made within budget and reason.

However, this time PSTA is making more changes than ever before. This is due in large part to major changes in travel patterns after the pandemic. Ridership recovery since then has been stronger on weekends than weekdays, which tells us riders might benefit from expanding all routes to provide service seven days a week. Increased evening and weekend service has been a long-time request in previous community bus plans, as well.

PSTA’s Planning team saw the current community bus plan as a perfect opportunity to adapt to changing travel patterns and make more ambitious changes than ever before. And best of all? These changes are revenue-neutral, meaning no changes in funding will be required. The only exception is our upcoming 34th St. Spark service, which is being funded through a Service Development Grant PSTA was awarded.

So, how does one undergo the tall task of redesigning PSTA’s bus network?

The Process

All community bus plans are a highly collaborative process of public outreach and discussion, and that is certainly the case for the CCBN. However, because the CCBN intended to make even more improvements, it was essential that PSTA staff provided many opportunities for the community to weigh in on their needs, wants, and opinions at each stage.

Here’s the CCBN process:

Phase 1—Choices

• Analyze PSTA’s existing service, demands, and needs
• Create a Choices Report
• Open up community discussion: What should PSTA’s priorities should be?

Phase 2—Concepts

• Design conceptual networks through two draft system maps
• Create a Concepts Report
• Open up community discussion: Which concept is preferred?

Phase 3—Draft Network

• Design a draft network
• Create a Draft Network Report
• Open up community discussion: Do we have the network right?
• Refine the network based on community feedback
• Finalize plan

Community discussions in each phase have been conducted through surveys, community discussion boards on the Connected Community Bus Network webpage, and physical outreach events throughout the county. 

A community outreach event at Grand Central Station.

In the case of the surveys, riders had the opportunity to answer a series of questions about how the proposed new bus network meets their needs.

Some results from the most recent survey regarding the current draft network.

The next step is to hold public hearings so riders and the public can voice their opinions on the draft network. Based on feedback from the public hearing, PSTA’s Planning team will make their final adjustments before the PSTA Board of Directors votes on the new network in March 2025. If all goes well, PSTA plans to implement the new network in fall 2025.

Redesigning Our Bus Network

Now that you have a better understanding of what the CCBN is and how the process has gone so far, let’s finally dive into the granular details of what’s changing in PSTA’s bus network!

Overall Goals

Here are some of the big goals the Connected Community Bus Network plans to achieve:

• Consistent schedules and weekend improvements with 7-day-a-week service on most routes
• Timed transfers at Park Street, Largo Transit Center, and downtown St. Pete
• Splitting Route 52 into Routes 52 and 49
• Add A and B routes for Routes 4, 9, 52, 74, and 78
• Route 4 extensions to Skyway Marina

Key Changes

Let’s go over some of the biggest changes PSTA has planned for our bus network.

New No-Transfer, One-Seat Rides

• Route 78: Park Street to Northwest Transfer Center (Tampa) (previously named Route 812 and 67)
• Route 38: Madeira Beach to Downtown St. Pete (partially serving existing Route 68)
• Route 65: Indian Shores to Seminole City Center

Frequency Changes

• Route 34 Grand Central to Eckerd (Spark): increase to 15-minute frequency and 7 days a week
• Route 52 (West/North of Largo Transit Center): weekday frequency increase from 30 to 15 minutes
• Suncoast Beach Trolley & Jolley Trolley South Beach: stagger schedules for 15-minute frequency on Clearwater Beach, 7 days a week
• Route 59: weekday frequency reduction from 15 to 30 minutes
• Route 74: weekday frequency reduction from 20 to 30 minutes
• Route 23: weekday frequency reduction from 30 to 60 minutes
• Route 18, 34, and 52(LX): 30-minute frequency all day

Stops Being Added

• Park Blvd near Gulf Blvd.
• 134th Ave. N./Vonn Rd. near Ulmerton Rd.
• 66th St. between Ulmerton Rd. & 142nd Ave. N.
• Drew St. between Hercules and Belcher
• Several Oldsmar streets
• Adding a microtransit/on-demand zone in Clearwater

Stops Being Removed:

• Some Downtown St. Pete stops (parts of Route 32)
• Part of 5th Ave. S.
• Part of 15th Ave. S. + 13th Ave. S.
• Part of 9th Ave. N.
• Part of 22nd Ave. N.
• Part of 37th St. N.
• Part of 58th St. N.
• On Top of the World
• Carillon Pkwy.
• Part of Avalon Loop (Avalon Ave. and 58th St.)
• Ridge Rd./8th Ave. (Largo)
• Part of Cleveland St.
• Part of Sunset Pt. Rd.
• Countryside Blvd.
• Stops along several Oldsmar streets

Current Draft Bus Network

Here's the new draft bus network as of February 2025.

Building the Back Bone for Future Improvements

Unfortunately, PSTA can’t make all the improvements our staff and our riders dream of. We know the community needs expanded service to provide more frequent services down Pinellas County’s busiest corridors. These improvements are largely restricted by funding limitations and many logistical obstacles. 

However, the goal of the CCBN is to lay the groundwork for many more incremental improvements to come over the next few years, such as the 34th St. Spark service launching in 2025 and the current long-term planning effort to introduce frequent, limited-stop service on the Alternate 19 corridor.