UConn students, faculty and staff will be able to use public transit for travel between the Storrs campus, UConn Health Center, the Downtown Hartford campus, and connecting bus routes in West Hartford and other transit routes throughout the state.

Submitted

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) Commissioner James P. Redeker announced Thursday that beginning Aug. 13, the existing CTtransit bus route that services destinations between Hartford and Tolland is expanding further east and will now include new stops in Storrs. The route extension will – for the first time ever – provide UConn students, faculty, and staff the ability to connect to the main UConn campus in Storrs, the downtown Hartford campus, and UConn Health in Farmington via public transit, in addition to a wide variety of other destinations in between.

UConn students are eligible to ride the bus at no charge simply by showing their student ID and a UPass obtained through the university, the costs of which are included in their university fees.

“An investment in our transportation system is an investment in our economic development, and it makes great sense to considerably improve connections between campuses within our state’s flagship university,” Malloy said. “By linking these three campuses together via public transit, in addition to the ability to connect to other destinations in Central Connecticut, including the upcoming Hartford Line rail commuter system with convenient connections to Bradley International Airport, we are making smart investments in our economy.”

“This new service gives residents more opportunities to pursue education, expand employment options, even access restaurants, entertainment, and shopping,” Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said. “It’s the modern transit connectivity that is vital for quality of life and commerce.”

The extended bus route will run hourly and include the following stops:

• Nash-Zimmer Transportation Center, Storrs Center (Connections to UConn Transportation for travel around campus and for connections to Willimantic)
• UConn campus Whitney Hall
• Route 195 at Route 44 (Four Corners)
• Tolland park and ride lot
• Buckland Hills Mall
• Manchester – Buckland park and ride (Bus Stops A & B)
• Downtown Hartford at Central Row (a short walk to UConn Hartford campus and connections to other local and express bus services)
• Union Station, Hartford
• CTfastrak Sigourney Street station (transfer available via CTfastrak Route 121 to UConn Health in Farmington)

Commuters on the extended route will have the ability to connect to the CTfastrak bus network in Central Connecticut, as well as the upcoming Hartford Line commuter rail system, which will launch in May 2018 and provide more frequent train service between New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, including a future planned station in West Hartford.

The bus route’s hours of operations will be:

• Weekdays: 5:45 a.m. to midnight
• Saturdays: 6:30 a.m. to midnight
• Sundays: 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Maps of the extended bus route are available here.

“The initiation of this service represents a major partnership between UConn and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, and represents our shared vision of the importance of quality transit service for the university,” Redeker said. “Transit service has been very popular with college students, and we are thrilled to being able to extend the reach of our system to Storrs. We’re making it as easy as possible – students simply need to show their student ID and pass, and they can hop on board the bus.”

“There’s been a collective excitement in the UConn community about this service ever since it was proposed,” UConn President Susan Herbst said. “The route will be especially valuable as UConn’s new downtown Hartford campus opens in coming weeks, and we hope it also will help us attract more people to consider working and studying at the Storrs campus who otherwise didn’t have transportation.”

Interest in the route has been so strong at UConn that CTDOT representatives encountered overflow crowds during on-campus information sessions last year, prompting the agency to add extra sessions for the many students and employees who wanted to learn about the service.

UConn’s downtown Hartford campus, which is located on Prospect Street at the site of the former Hartford Times building, will open later this month in time for the fall 2017 semester.

CTtransit is the CTDOT-owned bus service that operates 136 local routes and 24 express bus routes in the Hartford area.  For schedule, fare and trip planning information visit www.CTtransit.com. All CTtransit routes can also be located on Google Transit, and routing and real time vehicle location data are made freely available to smartphone application developers, including the mobile app “Transit,” which is available for both Android and iOS devices.