Two weeks into the fall semester, first-year fashion and textile management student Peyton Ary had to wait an hour on Centennial Campus for the Wolfline bus to pick her up after her afternoon class.
Students experiencing bus delays are not imagining things.
“With what’s going on right now over by the Coliseum Deck where Jensen Drive has been closed, all traffic has had to come in one way, so that added traffic has added increases to the time that buses may take to get to various stops,” Demar Bonnemere, communications manager for NC State Transportation, said.
Students are feeling the stress of these time delays. Noah Bailey, a third-year in arts studies, said he was late for his first day of class after his bus stopped on Pullen Road for an estimated 40 minutes.
“It’s just been kind of a hassle because I end up leaving when I think it is early enough, but I end up either cutting it really close or slightly late,” Bailey said.
Even when students can find a bus route and get to it on time, many students have reported struggling to find space.
“A lot of the times when I’m waiting, the buses are full and I can’t get on because there are people going to their apartments and other places on Centennial, so it can make it hard to get on a bus sometimes,” Ary said.
Jensen Drive is set to reopen Sept. 19, which Bonnemere believes will alleviate some of the traffic issues affecting the Wolfline.
Connor Jones, NC State transit manager, explained that labor shortages combined with the closed routes have put strain on the Wolfline’s capacity.
“Since COVID, we’ve been dealing with driver shortage issues,” Jones said. “So we don’t have the staff resources to cover the amount of service that we would like to, so that feeds into capacity limits on certain routes.”
Since dealing with these resource shortages, Jones said Transportation has tried to focus on connections between Main Campus and Centennial Campus.
“Route 40 is our most efficient, quickest route between Centennial Campus and Main Campus,” Jones said. “And because that is the quickest and most efficient route, that will get the most attention from students and staff. That leads to the crowds and the full buses that you see.”
Jones said the Wolfline is historically more crowded in the first few weeks of every fall semester, and the condition typically improves after that.
Jones said staff at NC State Transportation and the University’s transit service provider, Transdev, have been working hard to find solutions to the problems NC State students have on campus regarding the Wolfline.
“I know the staff at Transdev have been working 14-, 15-hour days trying to find staff to get the buses out on the road,” Jones said. “We have hired quite a few drivers over the past few weeks, and the situation is getting better.”
