UW Transportation Services to present recommended campus bus changes

Campus transportation officials will recommend changes to the campus bus system that will eliminate one Route 81 bus from the rotation and the combination of Routes 80 and 85.

The changes come after consulting with funding partners and campus bus users. Officials set a goal of limiting the impact to all riders of the campus bus system.

Transportation Services will recommend the service changes to the City of Madison Transit and Parking Commission on June 13 with service changes effective Aug. 26.

After two public input meetings in May, Transportation Services officials feel that these options best reduce the impact on students, employees and visitors on the UW campus while maintaining a high level of transit service. The changes are necessary because of a budget deficit which means bus service needs to be decreased by approximately 10 percent.

Transportation Services, the Associated Students of Madison, the Division of University Housing and Madison Metro worked closely to explore all service options and ensure that no one user group of the campus bus service was disproportionately affected. 

Here is more background on the proposed changes:

Eliminate one Route 81 bus from rotation

Four of the top five performing routes of Madison Metro are UW campus routes.  Performance is measured by ridership per revenue hour. Route 81 is the lowest performing route of any campus route and ranks 31^st among Madison Metro routes.

Ridership is an important consideration when exploring service change options. Route 81 operates as a late-night service and is used for those traveling in and near campus for many in the UW community. With this in mind, Transportation Services is recommending keeping Route 81 operating but to align the service with that of Route 82, which also operates as a late-night service. 

Route 81 will now operate at 30-minute frequencies – the same as Route 82.  This will allow for late night bus service to maintain service consistency for all riders and ensure that all of the same bus stops are served.

Combine Route 80 and Route 85 geography

The route 80/85 (as it is provisionally called) geography will maintain the same level of service to central and west campus and includes a change to the eastern part of campus.  Some stops and buildings will no longer be served while others will see increases in service frequencies. The new Route 80/85 geography would be adopted during both standard and recess service. 

While the Route 85-South Campus Circulator will no longer exist, the combined route will serve many of the same stops and will improve the level of service to southeast campus, officials say.

To see a map with the proposed changes, click here.