When did the west-side and east-side McNichols bus routes merge?

Back in the DSR era [[and well into DDOT), McNichols Road was served by two different bus routes: the west-side route [[#44) turned towards downtown at Second Avenue and the east-side route [[#32) terminated just south of Palmer Park. I believe the merger occurred some time after 1975, but before 1987 [[when the 1900-series GM Classics arrived as DDOT's very last buses using roll curtains for destination signs), because after the merger into a crosstown #32, the portion of the west-side route along Second became it's own route [[still #44) and was later discontinued in 1994.

In the 40s and 50s, the east McNichols route started at Harper and Whittier. It went west on Whittier to Kelly, north on Kelly to Seymour, west on Seymour to Gratiot, then west on McNichols to the end.

When we were going downtown, we would take it to Gratiot then transfer to the Gratiot streetcar to Hudsons.

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