Graduate students who reside in apartment complexes around Centennial Campus have said they have no bus transportation to Centennial.
A majority of the graduate students in the area study engineering, and almost all of the engineering departments are in the Centennial Campus engineering buildings. Those who live in Champions Court, Avery Close, Ivy Commons, Parkwood , Colonial Arms, or Gorman crossings must walk to get to their classes.
Students usually take Wolfline No.1 or Wolfline No. 9 to get off at Varsity drive stop, wait for the connecting buses like Wolfline Number 8, 3 or 3A , and walk to Centennial. The average travel time is about 25 minutes by foot, and more often than not, the wait-time for connecting buses makes the travel time increase.
Graduate Student Senator Nithyananthan Poosamani , also a committee member of student government’s Transportation and Safety Commission, has been working toward getting Wolfline to make stops in the affected areas and take students to engineering buildings. He said he succeeded in getting a trial basis service — route No. 10 — that makes stops at the apartment complexes and Centennial.
“As informed by the NCSU Department of Transportation, Southside Circulator [10] is currently run on a research phase to find the feasibility of running a permanent route. It is a part of improving the Transportation on Centennial Campus Master Plan” Poosamani said.
He said it’s not the shortage of funds, but the contract with First Transit that is the hurdle in starting new services. First Transit is an international busing company that has contracts in the Raleigh area.
Current services can be adjusted to meet students’ needs, though, Poosamani said.
“The Department of Transportation is not short on funds, but the contract they maintain with First Transit does not allow additional buses . Hence, this limits our ability to request for new routes. If we can change or modify existing routes to provide maximum benefit to students, that would be great,” Poosamani said.
He said that although students have embraced the temporary route, further changes should be made.
“We have recommended a few changes to number 10. Make it take this loop: College of Textiles, EB-2 Partners Way, Avent Ferry, Gorman, Varsity Drive, College of Textiles and then continue. This would help reduce students catching the number 8 Southeast Loop, getting down at Burger King and then catching Avent Ferry. Also the student traffic can be more regularized if we get this new connectivity. The proposed package has all of these advantages,” Poosamani said.
But there was confusion between students’ perceptions and authorities with regard to the ridership of No. 10, Poosamani said.
“The authorities have notified the [Transportation] Commission Chair that they are on a research phase and are satisfied with the number of people riding number 10 and that they are not wiling to change the route. What I really feel is that those numbers currently include only people using number 10 to get to College of Textiles and then walk to Centennial and not used by people to get back to their homes from the College. If the authorities can make possible changes as suggested above, there could be better utilization of number 10 and the ridership will increase tremendously,” Poosamani said.
Students in the area said it’s inconvenient to walk to classes each day especially since some stops are not even serviced by Wolfline .
“While going towards Burger King on Avent Ferry, opposite KP [ Brigadoon Drive], there is a bus stop where only CAT buses stop. Transloc shows it as a stop for wolfline , but no wolfline stops there. If made to stop, it would be of great help to people in KP ,” Abhishek Svami , a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, said.
Students also suggested a few extra stops on Avent Ferry Road.
“Number 3 and number 3A can be made to have a stop at CC, which would ease the burden on 8. Also, 10 should be modified to cover the engineering building, which would help everyone on Avent Ferry Road,” Svami said.
Balaji Soundararajan , a graduate student in business administration, said he wants to see more support from the chancellor and Department of Transportation.
“This is a nagging issue and we are working to push a new Wolfline route via Centennial, Avent Ferry, Gorman, Crest Road, Champion, and Centennial. Due to clauses in [ busing ] contracts, this was not possible for the last 2 years. But this year we are having a new Wolfline route 10 which runs periodically, so we are preparing to push this agenda further to gather more support from the Chancellor and the Transportation department,” Soundararajan said.
