The Wolfline Campus Bus Service introduced a new reverse shuttle route this year, which runs counterclockwise around campus.
According to Tom Kendig, director of Transportation, efforts to create the reverse shuttle route started five years ago as part of a plan to improve Wolfline service.
This new route is a welcome improvement to Wolfline service, and students need to find out more about changes to the bus service and ways to expand service to downtown Raleigh.
Several Student Government officials have backed one proposed improvement and are pushing for a Werewolf Night Service bus from campus to downtown Raleigh.
Both Kendig and Jay Dawkins, student body president, said the City of Raleigh has plans for a new circulator bus service that would use the Raleigh Convention Center, scheduled to open in September, as a hub.
The two also mentioned plans to meet with city officials to discuss integrating Wolfline service with this circulator bus route.
The Wolfline has attempted to expand its service, including the reverse shuttle route, for many years, with requests to expand service coming well before the University considered plans to add routes.Kendig said that the University has considered ways to implement a bus route to downtown, and the proposed circulator route provides a simple way to do so.
This is a laudable idea. The University already has an agreement with CAT to allow students to ride city buses at no charge with their student ID cards – it needs to advertise it.
But until the convention center opens and the City of Raleigh creates the circulator route, N.C. State students need a viable alternative to driving personal cars to the downtown area.
Presently, CAT bus service is unreliable and improving the timeliness of the buses will be an expensive, time-consuming endeavor. University officials should push for CAT to install real-time bus trackers and use an online visualization application similar to the one available for Wolfline coverage.
The reverse shuttle is a popular change, but students need to take the initiative if they want to see the service changes they want.