H 74°, L 50° | Tomorrow: 
H 76°, L 55°University of Wisconsin students traveling to La Crosse and Minnesota could have limited options for transportation if the bus company Jefferson Lines stops running its route from Madison.
The route, currently sponsored by the city of La Crosse, runs three times per week and stops at several locations between Madison, La Crosse and the Twin Cities, including Tomah, Winona, Rochester and Westby.
Jefferson Lines Vice President Bonnie Buchanon said it is not certain whether the route will be dropped entirely, though it is likely to happen. She added the company will not have confirmation for at least another two weeks.
Jefferson Lines runs bus routes daily throughout 13 states including Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas, as well as Manitoba, Canada.
Buchanon said Greyhound originally operated the route but dropped it four years ago due to its small ridership.
The Department of Transportation, which funds Jefferson Lines, asked Jefferson Lines to continue running the route.
DOT Transit Official John Alley said Greyhound has suspended many routes that aren’t lucrative.
“Greyhound, at the national level, made the decision to discontinue most, if not all of their routes that were not profitable,” Alley said. “They’ve maintained their routes like Chicago to Minneapolis, but they’ve pretty much cut off any other routes that have not been profitable.”
Alley said the Madison-La Crosse route was one that qualified for federal assistance to begin with, so by definition it was not a profitable route.
“It just doesn’t have a lot of riders on it,” Buchanon said. “They dropped it and at first when we were approached by DOT, we just said no, that we weren’t interested; then we finally agreed to take it and give it a try. We tried it for four years, and it just doesn’t have the ridership that we need to even cover our costs.”
Alley said since Jefferson applied for funding last year, it would technically carry them out to the end of the calendar year and they will have to make some changes soon.
“We’re not certain what they’re going to apply for in 2009,” he said.
If Jefferson Lines chooses to discontinue the route, it will stop running beginning in January.
Jefferson Lines and Greyhound are working out a plan to keep getting students to their destination.
“We’re tentatively planning that what we’ll do is run Minneapolis, Rochester, Winona, La Crosse, and then go from La Crosse into Tomah, then at Tomah, Wis., we would make a connection with Greyhound,” Buchanon said.
This alternative was confirmed by Alley, who said there would still be service, just not on the original route.
Alley said the buses would be time-coordinated, riders would be able to book one-way tickets from Madison to La Crosse and the service would run daily.
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Good riddance! Jefferson Lines is worthless, nearly 9 hours to get from Madison to Minneapolis is highway robbery. Not to mention the totally shady patrons, I thought I was going to be murdered!