The University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

's Campus Shuttle is a zero-fare bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 service operating on the university's Minneapolis

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

 and St. Paul (Falcon Heights

Falcon Heights, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 5,572 people, 2,103 households, and 1,434 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,487.9 people per square mile . There were 2,136 housing units at an average density of 953.7 per square mile...

) campuses. In 2009, the system carried more than 3.9 million riders, making it the second-busiest transit system in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 after the Twin Cities' primary provider, Metro Transit

Metro Transit (Minnesota)

Metro Transit is the transit division of the Metropolitan Council, a regional governmental agency in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Metro Transit is the largest operator of bus services in the seven-county region surrounding Minneapolis and St...

. It outpaces all of the suburban transit provider in the Twin Cities, as well as those of outlying metropolitan areas in the state. Duluth Transit Authority

Duluth Transit Authority

The Duluth Transit Authority is the operator of mass transportation in Duluth, Minnesota. Service is also provided in Proctor, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin as well as the eastern edge of Hermantown, Minnesota. The organization was formed in 1969 by the Minnesota State Legislature...

 serving Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...

 and Superior, Wisconsin

Superior, Wisconsin

Superior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 26,960 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.Superior is at the western...

 is the state's third-busiest provider, while the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority

Minnesota Valley Transit Authority

The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority is a public transportation agency that provides fixed-route and demand-responsive bus services to several communities in the southern portion of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The service area currently includes the cities of Apple Valley,...

 ranks fourth. The shuttles are operated under contract by First Transit

First Transit

First Transit, a division of FirstGroup America, is a United States-based subsidiary of the United Kingdom-based FirstGroup. It provides contract public transit and paratransit services, transit management services and transit consulting throughout North America...

 through the university's Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) department.

There are four primary routes in the system. A fifth route is a limited-stop variant that skips about half the stops of its "parent" route.

Route number/name		Notes
121	Campus Connector	The longest route in the system, this runs along Washington Avenue through the West Bank and East Bank campuses in Minneapolis, then turns north onto Oak Street and works its way to the University of Minnesota Transitway to head to the St. Paul campus.
121E	Express Connector	This takes the same route as the Campus Connector, but skips about half of the stops.
122	Washington Avenue Bridge Circulator	Often seen abbreviated as "WABC". This route circles clockwise from the East Bank to the West bank and back across the Mississippi River Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...  using the Washington Avenue Bridge Washington Avenue Bridge (Minneapolis) The Washington Avenue Bridge carries County Road 122 across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota and connects the East Bank and West Bank portions of the University of Minnesota's main campus...  and the 10th Avenue Bridge.
123	East Bank Circulator	This route circles counter-clockwise through the East Bank campus.
124	St. Paul Campus Circulator	This route circles clockwise through the St. Paul campus.

The system started running hybrid-electric

Hybrid electric vehicle

A hybrid electric vehicle is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle which combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional...

 buses in 2008. As of 2010, the system's fleet is primarily composed of hybrid buses.

During the school year on regular weekdays, the shuttles operate with schedule-less service as often as every five minutes. In 2008, the system carried 3.55 million riders. Despite the fact that the shuttle service is free, it is comparatively inexpensive to operate: with an operating cost of $4.55 million in 2008, the operating subsidy was only $1.28 per passenger. Even Metro Transit

Metro Transit (Minnesota)

Metro Transit is the transit division of the Metropolitan Council, a regional governmental agency in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Metro Transit is the largest operator of bus services in the seven-county region surrounding Minneapolis and St...

's busy Hiawatha light-rail line

Hiawatha Line

The Hiawatha Line is a light rail corridor in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from downtown Minneapolis to the southern suburb of Bloomington. It was formerly known as the Hiawatha Line named after Hiawatha Avenue. Major connections on the line include the Minneapolis-St...

required a subsidy of $1.44 that year, and that was with many riders paying $1.75 or more for a ride.

The shuttles carried 3.9 million riders in 2009. In 2010, Parking and Transportation Services received the annual Transit System of the Year award from the Minnesota Public Transit Association.

External links

• Parking and Transportation Services – Busing