Cascades East Transit has launched a new bus route connecting Redmond and Sisters with six round trips every weekday.

Operated by the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, Cascades East Transit began running fixed-route bus service between the cities of Central Oregon early last year.

Program administrator Scott Aycock said COIC has made a point of adjusting bus services in response to demand as the transit system has developed, leading to the abandonment of a Bend to Sisters route in favor of the new Redmond to Sisters route.

Aycock said everyone had assumed there would be more Sisters residents interested in getting to Bend than Redmond, but the route was getting very little traffic.

“That’s why we set it up first as Bend-Sisters, but the feedback we were getting was that there was more demand for Redmond-Sisters,” Aycock said. “And I think it’s partly because of things like the Wal-Mart Supercenter, that’s a big shopping destination. Sisters doesn’t have any kind of just basic department store kind of deal.”

The buses will stop at the Sisters Park and Ride Lot on East Washington Avenue in Sisters and at WorkSource Connection on Southeast College Loop in Redmond. The Redmond stop is near the airport, the Department of Human Services office and the Central Oregon Community College campus, and is served by Cascades East Transit buses connecting to Bend, Prineville and Madras.

Riders pay $6.25 for a round-trip — $5 for seniors and the disabled — including a shuttle bus to their final destination within the city, and are asked to make a reservation by 4 p.m. on the day prior to their trip or on Friday for a Monday trip.

The transit service is in talks with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to establish a Warm Springs-to-Madras route sometime soon, Aycock said. Around half the adults living in Warm Springs do not have driver’s licenses, he said, limiting their shopping and work opportunities to what is available on the reservation.

The tribal government and COIC are currently seeking grant funding for the Warm Springs-to-Madras route.

To see schedules for Cascades East Transit buses, visit www.cascadeseasttransit.com, or call the Ride Center at 541-385-8680 between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.