Background

Beginning in 2014, public transit agencies across the United States started to redesign their entire bus networks. The goal of the restructures was two-fold: 1) meet the needs of users and 2) increase ridership and improve productivity. There is a limited but growing body of research documenting bus network redesigns. TCRP Synthesis 140: Comprehensive Bus Network Redesigns (2019) named the minimal components needed to plan and implement a network redesign. The recently published Eno Center for Transportation Bus Network Redesigns in the Modern Age: How U.S. Transit Agencies Adapt to Evolving Travel (2025) article highlighted the bold efforts agencies are undertaking to transform bus networks with an emphasis on improving mobility, access, and safety for users. There has been minimal effort to articulate the process of evaluating the impacts and effectiveness of bus network redesigns.

Synthesis Objective

The purpose of this synthesis is to explore the specific measures of success found from network redesign in the short-medium-long-term; the results realized, and how agencies reported comparisons to the prior network. This synthesis shall be guided by the following questions:

• What common themes and activities were identified and deployed in redesigning bus networks? Were those measures of success achieved?
• What impacts have been tracked for operations and customer experience?
• What lessons have been learned, both to facilitate project design and implementation and for replication by other transit systems? 

This synthesis will identify metrics used relative to the initial goals motivating the network redesign and guide those currently designing and/or implementing updated networks so that they are able to measure their success.