EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – The city tweaked the bus schedule to end the 4-7 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday routes.

Excelsior Springs Transportation, or EST, instead offers morning, medicalrelated transportation.

The changes took effect Tuesday.

On June 7, city leaders held a public hearing during the City Council’s regular meeting to determine whether the changes should be made. No member of the public spoke for or against the then-proposed changes.

The hearing followed public notices posted by the city about the forum. As of 4 p.m. June 7, the city had received “no comments” regarding the notices, Public Works Director Chad Birdsong said.

Birdsong explained the city’s reasons for the changes in a June 1 memo to city leaders and during the hearing. The city had offered evening routes to accommodate Job Corps students needing to do after-school shopping, he stated. Job Corps no longer offers the after-school trips to students, Birdsong stated.

“This has been probably a couple years ago that they quit them,” he told city leaders.

After Job Corps ceased offering the outings, the city continued to provide evening routes “for the few people that rode them,” Birdsong stated. But overall demand for evening transportation has dropped; meanwhile, there have been “increased medical trip demands,” he stated.