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Apple Country riders pan new transfer stop

Riders board an Apple Country Public Transit bus at the park and ride lot at the Ag Center.

Apple Country bus riders are giving an overwhelming thumbs down to a transfer station that moved from the Asheville Regional Airport to a park-and-ride lot at the Ag Center fairgrounds eight-tenths of a mile away.


“It’s so out of the way from civilization and people,” said Emma Wuttke, a daily rider who takes an Asheville transit bus and then an Apple Country bus to her job in Hendersonville. “I’m 20. It’s not safe at all. Because it’s just me.”
Until the May 26, the transfer point where riders connected from one bus line to the other was at the arrivals end of the airport. Bus riders could get out of the weather under the terminal canopy or wait inside. They could use the public rest rooms. They felt safe.
“That was wonderful because there was people. There were security people,” Wuttke said. “I know all bus stops don’t have security but at least you can see the bus stop from the road. It was better because there was a bathroom and shelter when it rains. I wait there for 40 minutes between the buses.”
Apple Country Public Transit, a part of the Western Carolina Community Action, operates by contract to provide public transportation. Its routes are set by the Henderson County Planning Department.

Airport moved transfer point


“The issue was one of the Asheville Airport relocating where we would make our transfer point,” said Matt Cable, the county planner who works with the bus routes. “We had a long-term plan to locate at the park and ride. We determined that until such time as the airport could give us a different location, we would move there. It actually reduces wait time” between buses. “Part of the decision making was being able to serve the park and ride” users. Another factor was time. The airport route “is a 3- or 4-minute loop once you’re inside.”
Bill Crisp, the Apple Country transit manager for WCCA, said he did not know the details of the change because the county planning departments sets the routes and the stops.
“For some reason the airport wanted to move us to remote area of the airport,” Crisp said.
Cable said the new transfer point airport officials offered did not seem workable.
“When they presented that option it was not a sheltered stop and there may not have been sidewalk access was our understanding,” he said. “The airport was basically wanting to relocate (the buses) where other transportation services were and that’s generally at the opposite end. We were at the very front at the end (where arriving passengers unload). They have a capacity issue so we were going to be pushed down beyond the actual terminal.”
“The airport has expressed an interest in us coming back and I understand there’s discussion about Asheville possibly building a shelter” for a transfer point, Cable said.
“The airport is aware that Apple Country Transit decided to discontinue its service to the airport, and ended that service on May 26,” Tina Kinsey, marketing director of the Asheville Regional Airport said in an email response to the Lightning’s question. “We welcome public transportation to facilitate travel to and from the airport, and hope that Apple Country will reinstate its service to the airport.”

Other options explored

Among the options to restore airport access, Cable said, are adding a stop near a new Triangle Stop under construction at the airport exit on N.C. 280 or finding somewhere else on the airport property. A parking deck, which is in the airport’s long-range plan, could also provide a practical option, though that’s years down the road.
“Serving the airport is not something that’s out of question,” Cable said.
Henderson County’s public transportation system does not serve air travelers well now, riders said.
“An elderly person can’t walk that far,” said Robert Jennings, a regular Apple Country rider. “You can’t even see the airport from here. It’s like the Wild West out here. There’s not really any kind of public buildings you could duck into.”
Wuttke, the 20-year-old Asheville commuter, called the new transfer point “a huge inconvenience.”
“I was also speaking to the bus driver,” she said. “He’s noticed a major lack of riders due to it being such an inconvenient spot.” On Tuesday morning, she added, a traveler headed to the airport set out on foot with his luggage. “We drove by him because he was still walking. He was on the road because the grass was so tall.”