Wave Transit holds third public hearing on possible bus route changes

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wave Transit is considering possible changes to several of its bus routes in Wilmington to make the rider experience better.

Wave Transit held a third public hearing on Wednesday afternoon at Padgett Station in downtown Wilmington, where they presented several route changes to riders.

The changes would be on bus routes 105, 107, 109, and 210.

Currently, routes 105, 107, and 109 experience delays due to traffic along several major roads, including College Road, 17th Street, and Carolina Beach Road.

Wave Deputy Director Jonathan Dodson said these changes are correcting issues with some routes that Wave has noticed since the start of the year.

“We made some changes in January 2025, it was the Reimagine system overhaul and this is some fine-tuning some tweaks that we need to address based off of that plan,” Dodson said. “So what we’re looking to do is just tweaking the existing routes, looking at the routing to make sure that what we’re doing fits within a set amount of time.”

Bus passenger Sean Ryan uses the 210 route frequently.

He’s hoping the proposed changes help buses bypass congestion and improve service speed and reliability.

“I’m hoping that they come up with something because usually, it’s supposed to run every 30 minutes, but usually you’ll find two bus, both buses on that route going down in the same direction within 5 or 10 minutes of each other,” Ryan said. “So that means its an hour for the next bus, when its supposed to be half an hour so it’s not very convenient.”

Wave Transit says it will take the feedback it’s received from the public into consideration, and if any changes are approved, they will likely occur sometime next year.