The Eau Claire Transit Administration met with students, staff and community members to discuss changes to the route 9 and 19 buses, the buses that transport riders around Upper Campus and Lower Campus.
On March 5, Tina Deetz, a driver supervisor for transit, and Ty Fadness, the transit manager, gave a presentation on changes made to the buses that stop at UW-Eau Claire. Route nine has been categorized as the Lower Campus route and route 19 has been categorized as Upper Campus.
Each route had modifications for the next academic year, both including a stop at the future location of the County Materials Complex. The presentation first discussed changes to the current routes.
For the Lower Campus route, if patrons start at the Centennial Hall stop, the bus will go to Davies Student Center, then move back to Summit Avenue, following a similar path as its current iteration. The bus will then stop at the Transit Center.
The Transit Center is a new complex currently being built in downtown Eau Claire. Located on the corner of Main Street and Farwell Street, this center will be the new hub for buses and a waiting area for citizens to catch their next bus.
The Lower Campus route will then move from the Transit Center and is currently set to stop at Menomonie Market, but that stop is still under discussion. The route will then move to Haymarket Plaza and the Pablo Center at the Confluence.
This route will follow the same path as it does now, driving down Graham Avenue until Lake Street. From there the route has a few stops on this road before turning on Seventh Avenue Currently, the bus will then turn down Water Street in the direction of the UW-Eau Claire campus.
In the new iteration, the bus will instead turn the other direction on Water Street to the County Materials Complex. From there the bus will loop back onto Water Street, moving to Haas Fine Arts Center and back to Centennial Hall.
“We’re just going to do this all when the new route changes happen,” Deetz said. “Make it a lot easier instead of rolling out all these changes all the time.”
For the Upper Campus route, if patrons start at Towers Halls, the bus will move to Oak Ridge Hall and Chancellors Hall before moving on to Clairemont Avenue. The route then moves onto Bollinger Fields, stopping at the parking lot and circling the park.
The route then continues back to Clairemont Avenue and drives west towards the County Materials Complex. The route then follows the Lower Campus route, stopping at Haas Fine Arts Center and moving back to Centennial Hall and Davies.
At this point, there are scheduled to be four buses that follow these routes, switching routes every time. This means that the buses will oscillate from Upper Campus to Lower Campus, compared to now where the buses will stay on one route.
According to Deetz, it is scheduled that a bus on average will be to each stop every 15 minutes, consisting of 30-minute routes with two buses on each route at a time.
There have also been a few updates to the Saturday university route, stopping at the County Materials Complex and the Transfer Center.
According to Fadness, there will also be a new bus tracker app at the start of the next academic year to see where the buses are located. The app is currently being tweaked and evaluated. The app and the routes are open to change as the academic year continues.
“As long as it’s mutually agreed we can add amendments to the agreements,” Fadness said.
The forum had a variety of participants, including administrators, members of the Student Senate, students and a current bus driver. All parties were able to share their opinions on the current route plans.
Fisher can be reached at [email protected].
