Summerville to the Sea 5/26- Bus Trip

Summerville to the Sea Bus Trip

Saturday, June 26, 2021 - Juneteenth Plus a Week

For more info contact William Hamilton, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit at (843) 870-5299.

Summerville, SC- You are invited to join the Dorchester Unit of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit as they complete their Juneteenth commemoration with an epic Transit demonstration pilgrimage to the beach at the Isle of Palms from downtown Summerville, on Saturday, June 26 starting at 9:30 am. You can join them anywhere along their trip to the sea or follow the entire effort online.

General information on the Reach the Beach shuttle

They’ll begin their pilgrimage on Hutchison Square in downtown Summerville at 9:30 am and carpool 9.3 miles through a stop at Lincolnville Town Hall (where more riders will join) and on to the CARTA park and ride facility at Melnic Dr. in N. Charleston. There, they will board the south bound #10 Rivers Ave. Bus at 10:10 am. They’ll transfer in Downtown Charleston at the Mary Street Transit Center (where anyone who likes is welcome to join the Journey) at 11:15 am to continue on the #40 Mt. Pleasant Bus which will take us out to Mt. Pleasant Town Center/Market Center Drive (where again you can join the ride) to board the Reach the Beach Shuttle at 12:17 pm which will finally arrive at the Ocean at 12:40 pm. See the full trip on Google Transit. https://goo.gl/maps/pH78c9K5G1sDWgQw6  

At the Isle of Palms, we’ll swim, have a picnic, build transit oriented sand castles and enjoy the afternoon before boarding the Beach Shuttle at 4:15 to begin the trip home, which will reach the Melnic Park and Ride at 7:10 pm. See the return trip on Google Transit https://goo.gl/maps/zEAbYzcsJA9uBLMK9

Beach shuttle stop at Mt. Pleasant Town Centre

If you can’t join the trip, you can follow the journey on Social Media through www.bfltransit.com. You can reach the group by telephone at (843) 870-5299. They’ll be turning nearly six hours on a total of six different buses into quality time with games, fun and discussion connecting via the buses free 5g Internet with the national transit equity community as well as the Lowcountry. Our theme song for the day will be selected by a public poll, we’ll be stenciling special T Shirts and at the beach we’ll plant a special flag to mark success in our six year effort to return transit to the Atlantic, Summerville to the Sea. Children who complete the trip will be awarded one of our Polynesian bone fish hook pendants given to participants in our Open the Ocean for Kids effort.

Walkway to Beach from Bus Stop

Total bus fare for an adult will be four dollars round trip, Senior citizens over age 55 will be two dollars, Charleston County Students, children under age 6, CofC Students, MUSC Students and Staff are all free. For those dealing with economic challenges, Best Friends will be providing free bus fare, drinks and lunches for the day. There are free showers and toilets on the Isle of Palms. If you would like to support the effort, tax deductible donations can be made through act blue online at You can contribute to the support of this effort online on Act Blue at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/best-friends-of-lowcountry-transit--inc--1?fbclid=IwAR2LGKxdmMUqJKvcGZGKYPlZKfC0qfcvvk5SyqC0M1FAzs3556LTDvSSEi0 

This effort is sponsored financially partially by the Amalgamated Transit Union and a number of local unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

As our transit system currently exists, this trip is barely possible and still requires a 9.3 mile drive in an automobile because unreliable LINK Transit from Summerville to N. Charleston does not operate on the weekends or holidays when the Reach the Beach Shuttle is available.

The Dorchester Unit of Beast Friends of Lowcountry Transit is campaigning actively with efforts in from Dorchester to Washington, DC to have the original 2015 plan for the Bus Rapid Transit line approved by Charleston County voters in the Nov. 2016 referendum restored which brought rapid trainst all the way to downtown Summerville. The current, deeply compromised plan ends the transit line at the Fairgrounds on Highway 78 in Ladson and ceases to be rapid transit with the end of dedicated busways in N. Charleston just South of Reynolds Ave.

Shuttle stopped at Isle of Palms

Summerville Transit Activist Linda Saylor estimates that even after LCRT is built as currently proposed and operating, this same trip will still take: 68 minutes walking and travel on LINK (based on existing weekday service, assuming it Runs on the weekends then) to reach the Fairgrounds from downtown Summerville; Forty-five minutes on LCRT to Huger Street in Downtown Charleston and One hour and 8 minutes from Huger Street in Downtown Charleston to the Beach, a total of 181 minutes or three hours. Of course, after three hours riders will have to head to the bathroom before they reach the beach, a walk of nine more minutes.

This ride is one of several planned by Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit this summer to help bring transit riders to the beach. Among those joining the rides will be families and children who seldom and sometimes have never seen the sea as part of their Open the Ocean for Kids effort. 

For more information on the effort, see they hyperlinked version of this information release at https://tinyurl.com/sville2sea . You may also call William Hamilton, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit at (843) 870-5299.