sealPurdue News
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August 13, 1999

Free bus service for Purdue students,
staff begins Aug. 23

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- When classes start Aug. 23, Purdue students will have a free ride throughout the Greater Lafayette area.

CityBus of Greater Lafayette, with the help of Purdue University, will allow students to ride any bus route by simply showing their Purdue identification. Purdue faculty and staff can show their Purdue ID for free passage on any of the CityBus campus routes.

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"This is a cooperative agreement," said Marty Sennett, CityBus general manager. "Purdue is contributing to the cost of operating the service, and CityBus helped secure federal funding. It should allow us to double or triple ridership or more over the next two or three years."

Purdue will contribute almost $802,000 for the first year of the expanded service, said Kenneth Burns, executive vice president and treasurer. CityBus will allocate $335,000 of its federal capital funds. The service will be free for at least the first year.

Purdue may follow the lead of most Big Ten schools with a bus service and add a modest charge to student fees to cover costs in the future, Burns said.

CityBus serves all of Lafayette, West Lafayette and Purdue, and extends into Tippecanoe County, reaching places such as Tippecanoe Mall, Klondike Road, and Indiana 26 and I-65. A full listing of routes is available at the CityBus Web site. Route and schedule information is also available at the bus depot in downtown Lafayette, the Purdue Visitor Information Center (both the main location and in the Purdue Memorial Union), University Residences and Greater Lafayette Bank One locations.

Five CityBus routes serve the Purdue campus. All routes make stops at various locations around the academic campus. The Silver and Gold loops provide service to University Residences during the day, while the Black Loop provides nighttime service. The Gold Loop has been expanded to include the Purdue Village (formerly known as Married Student Housing).

A new route, the Bronze Loop, will be added to serve the area bounded by Union, Ninth, Brown and Fourth streets as well as the campus.

CityBus also provides shuttle service from Hilltop Apartments and Tower Acres. The Ross-Ade Stadium north parking lot will serve as the park-and-ride lot, with a shuttle service every 10 minutes from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Most of the 900 spaces there will be available to holders of A, B or C parking permits.

Those spaces previously were free, and about 300 to 400 were used daily, primarily by freshmen, said Donna Kemper, parking facilities manager at Purdue. Most upperclassmen generally do not use the Ross-Ade lot and instead buy parking permits that allow them to park in residence hall garage and lots. Those permits are awarded based on demand and the number of years a student has lived in the residence hall system.

Although service frequency and times vary for each route, buses generally run Mondays through Saturdays from 6 a.m. to as late as 11 p.m. The service is more limited on Sundays. However, the Black Loop, which will serve the campus and housing areas as well as the Chauncey Hill and Levee commercial areas, will have more extensive hours, running until 2:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and midnight for the rest of the week.

More buses will be added to handle the increased ridership. Several of the buses will offer bike racks and will be specially equipped to accommodate people with disabilities. Four near-campus shelters will be erected: at University and Third streets; the Ross-Ade lot; on Northwestern Avenue at the pullout near the Electrical Engineering Building; and near the Purdue Police Department at Intramural Drive and State Street.

Sources: Marty Sennett, (765) 423-2666

Kenneth P. Burns, (765) 494-9705

Writer: J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371; jwillis1@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

CAPTION:

CityBus of Greater Lafayette operates five bus routes that serve the Purdue campus. This fall, Purdue students can ride all CityBus routes by just showing their university identification. Faculty and staff can ride campus routes by showing their Purdue ID. (Purdue University graphic by James McCammack)

Color graphic, electronic transmission, and Web and ftp download available. Graphic ID: CityBus

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