Park & Ride coming

Beverly Ellefson will have to leave her house about 10 minutes earlier Oct. 1 to drive to the McGowan Park and Ride from Smartville once Yuba-Sutter Transit eliminates the North Beale Transit Center stop on routes to Sacramento.

She said she thinks changing the bus stop will be inconvenient and the McGowan Park & Ride should be added, but not replace other stops.

"The riders is gonna have to pay more gas to get to a further bus stop," Ellefson said. "Plus it's gonna take them longer to get there."

Construction has started on the McGowan Parkway Park & Ride on the west side of Highway 70 at McGowan and Powerline Road in Olivehurst. The lot serving Yuba-Sutter Transit passengers using the system's Sacramento service will have about 120 parking spaces, lighting and landscaping.

Transit directors earlier this month approved moving forward with the project which will replace the current North Beale Road stop

Transit Manager Keith Martin said slashing the North Beale stop will reduce travel times, lower operating costs and improve schedule reliability.

Gary Bradford of Plumas Lake said he thinks the McGowan Park & Ride will be useful to people living in north Plumas Lake and Olivehurst. He said he will probably continue to use the East Nicolaus stop on his bus ride to Sacramento because driving to McGowan would be the "wrong direction."

Construction is expected to cost $360,000, said Steve Campbell, associate civil engineer for Yuba County.