Student spring semester Centro pass enables unlimited travel along two popular bus routes

Student spring semester Centro pass enables unlimited travel along two popular bus routesDecember 18, 2007Kevin Morrowkdmorrow@syr.edu

To enhance students’ ability to travel off campus, SU Parking and Transit Services and Centro are making available for purchase personal passes that will allow unlimited rides throughout the spring semester along two popular bus routes — #30 Westcott and #50 Carousel Center.

The unlimited ride pass is good through May 18, 2008, for transportation along both routes, covering such popular destinations as downtown Syracuse, the Carousel Center mall and the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center (local departure hub for Greyhound and Trailways buses and Amtrak trains).

The pass — available to all full-time SU undergraduate and graduate students — is $30 and will be sold beginning Jan. 14, 2008, at the Cash Operations window in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center, all SU Bookstore locations and the Parking and Transit Services office in the Skytop Office Building. Students may pay for the pass using cash, check or their Bursar account.

“We’ve developed this pilot program with the intent to allow students easier and more affordable access to the routes the program serves,” says Parking and Transit Services Director Al Sauer.

A student who purchases the pass will receive a numbered magnetic strip card. Upon boarding any one of the designated Centro buses (#30 or #50), the student simply inserts the card into the fare box slot to ride the bus.

The unlimited ride pass is a pilot project intended to supplement already-existing services such as the campus free-fare zone and the Student Association-sponsored Carousel Shuttle service, which runs Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m.-2 a.m. The University and Centro will evaluate the project at the end of the spring semester to determine whether it should be continued or perhaps expanded.