FL: Seminole cutting Lynx bus routes this weekend in favor of ‘Scout’ ride app

When most Lynx bus routes in Seminole County end on Saturday, Katric Dane will have to figure out how he will go to the grocery stores, get a haircut or simply move around the Orlando area.

“I may end up being trapped in Sanford,” the 69-year-old said Thursday, while waiting for a Lynx bus at the Altamonte Springs’s SunRail station to take him to his favorite barber.

Dane, of Sanford, sold his car last year because of the high costs associated with owning a vehicle and has since relied on public transportation.

He’ll have a choice other than Lynx: Scout, Seminole’s new on-demand microtransit service that launched Oct. 15 to replace Lynx’s fixed routes north of State Road 436. That service is off to a slow start — and its fares are higher than Lynx — but officials expect a surge of interest from transit riders once the buses are gone.

Through the door-to-door service, riders can request a Scout ride by using an app on their smartphone or calling a dispatch center. A minivan will then be sent to the rider’s location and give them a ride within five zones in the county, excluding most of Seminole’s rural boundary on the east side.

Commissioner Amy Lockhart said Scout is not meant to compete with private ridesharing companies, such as Uber and Lyft, that also connect drivers with passengers through smartphone apps but with much higher fares than Scout.

“This service is for people who are public-transportation dependent,” she said. “We want people to be able to afford to move around Seminole County. What we don’t want to provide is a taxpayer-subsidized Uber.”

County officials decided last year to wait until Sunday — nearly three months after Scout began service — to eliminate the Lynx routes, giving bus riders time to consider the new public transportation service.

Seminole commissioners called it a financial decision to replace eight fixed bus routes with Scout minivans.

Seminole will pay Miami-based Freebee, which operates Scout, about $5 million for the first year. By comparison, the county paid Lynx about $17 million last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

“Our goal is to provide a more compassionate, more cost-effective transportation system,” said Lockhart, who led the effort to replace Lynx with Scout. “And we’re doing it at a cost savings to the taxpayers.”

Even so, daily ridership on Scout vans is still far below Lynx buses.

Through last Tuesday, Scout provided a total of 43,234 rides to 49,697 passengers since its launch. County officials estimated the service generates about 700 riders a day currently, more than double the 300 riders a day its first month. Christmas Eve set a record with 770 rides.

By comparison, Lynx data from 2024 showed an average weekday ridership of 6,644 bus riders in Seminole. The county conducted its own study, however, that estimated between 3,500 and 4,200 people rode Lynx in Seminole daily.

The most popular Scout trips have been to offices off International Parkway in Lake Mary, Wal-Mart stores, supermarkets, SunRail stations and the Orlando-Sanford International Airport.

Four Lynx fixed-routes will not be eliminated on Sunday because of their consistently high ridership. They are:

• Route 436N, which will run mostly along State Road 436 between the Altamonte Springs SunRail station, at 2741 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd, and downtown Apopka.
• Route 436S will run between the Altamonte Springs SunRail station and the Orlando International Airport.
• Route 102 will run mostly along S.R. 436 and U.S. Highway 17-92 between the Altamonte Springs SunRail station and the Lynx Central Station in downtown Orlando.
• Route 23 will run between the intersection of state roads 436 and 434 and the Rosemont neighborhood in Orange County.

Dane and other Lynx riders said this week they hesitated hailing a Scout ride because of the higher fares.

A single Lynx ride fare is $2, and $4.50 for an all day pass, according to the organization’s website, with free bus transfers. Some residents — including seniors, disabled — qualify for a 50% reduction in the fare costs.

A trip on a Scout van without discounts is $4 for a rider traveling within one zone, $7 for two zones and up to $14 through several zones.

However, county officials said many seniors, low-income or disabled riders would likely qualify for reduced fares on Scout. Most wheelchair users, for example, can travel for between 50 cents and $1. Scout riders traveling to a SunRail station would pay only $2 for the trip. Since its launch, the average Scout fare has been $4.44, according to county data.

“I would encourage people to look at the discounts. Don’t look at the published price,” Assistant County Manager Kristian Swenson said. “It’s fairly economical.”

But Matilda Rodriguez, who regularly takes a Lynx bus from Sanford to Altamonte Springs to care for her grandchildren, said the Scout fares can be steep for her.

“It’s a lot, so I don’t know what I’m going to do on Monday,” she said this week while waiting for a bus at the SunRail station and holding a Lynx day pass.

The Scout launch has had its hiccups, with some riders complaining they’ve had to wait more than an hour for their vans to arrive. To ease wait times, the county recently added seven vans to its fleet, bringing the total to 42. The county also hired more than 100 drivers, and the average wait time has been reduced to 31 minutes, they say.

“Traffic [during weekdays] is probably our number one enemy,” said Chris Patton, Seminole’s director of communications in regard to wait times and adding more vehicles. “We move people much faster on the weekends.”

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