Free trolley service: It’s not just for downtown anymore

Starting Saturday, Wichita Transit will be expanding its Q-Line free trolley routes into a larger service area linking downtown, Old Town, College Hill and the city/county government center.

“The Q-Line has new routes, … new times, better frequency and, as you can see behind me, a great new look,” said City Council member Janet Miller, who announced the changes Thursday in a news conference at the transit department’s bus garage. “The Q-Line will begin serving more than just downtown. That’s what’s very exciting.”

The service will be divided into four routes, all of which will intersect at the corner of Douglas and St. Francis to facilitate trolley transfers.

(You can click through maps of all four routes at the end of this story.)

It marks a major departure from earlier iterations of the Q-Line, said Wichita Transit Director Steve Spade.

“When you look at a transit system, transit systems are built from the inside out,” Spade said. “We believe in a strong core, and we need a strong transit system downtown to support that.

“But the downtown is connected to the neighborhoods, and one of the significant changes in the way the Q-Line is designed is that the current Q-Line operates in sort of a circuitous fashion, taking people through downtown. The new Q-Line begins to link downtown with the neighborhoods.”

Two of the new routes will be weekday lunchtime service to help government employees and other workers in the central area circulate around to restaurants outside walking distance of their offices.

“You know, as Wichitans, one of our favorite pastimes is eating,” Miller said. “At least three times a day — more if you include evening entertainment.”

The other two routes will run in the evenings and at night to facilitate travel to downtown attractions including the Century II Convention and Performing Arts Center, the Intrust Bank Arena, Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and nightlife spots in Old Town and Delano.

Businesses and community groups in the central core helped with designing the routes and contributed to paying for the service, Miller said.

“The city of Wichita would not be able to do this on its own,” she said.

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Free trolley service: It’s not just for downtown anymore."