B, X buses to change routes, schedules Oct. 1

Starting in October, some of the 22,000 students who ride campus buses might have to adjust their daily travel habits.\nCampus Bus Services has shortened the B bus route and scheduled X buses to stop running an hour and a half earlier in the day beginning Oct. 1, said Operations Manager Perry Maull. \nThe X bus, known as the stadium express, used to run until 11:17 p.m. but will now board its final riders at 8:47 p.m., Maull said. The change came about because not many people have been using the route late in the evening, he said.\nAs an alternative to the X route, students traveling after 8:47 p.m. can use the A route. Like the X route, the A route goes to the stadium. \n"Instead of using IMU shelter, (students can) just walk down to Woodlawn and Seventh and use that stop," Maull said. \nHowever, the A buses do not go up Indiana Avenue and Dunn Street, which the X bus covers.\nJunior Meg Minkner said the change would inconvenience her if she were studying at the library and needed a ride to her home on Lincoln Street because the A bus will no longer travel that way. \nSophomore Lindsey Krantz agreed the change was inconvenient.\n"I think it's ridiculous that buses don't run after midnight," said Krantz, who uses the X bus to get home after working late at the Indiana Memorial Union. "If Bloomington wants to act like it's a big city, then they should run buses like a big city."\nThe other major change is for the B bus, which typically went up North Jordan Avenue and ended its route in the stadium. Now the route will end at Fisher Circle by the Christian Student Fellowship, Maull said, and will not go to the Stadium White Lot. Instead it will turn around and head back down Jordan Avenue.\n"Nobody rides the B to get the stadium," Maull said. "If you want to get to the stadium, you take the X or the A."\nJunior Dan Harm, a member of Phi Kappa Psi, which is on the B route, said he agreed students could easily take the A bus to get the stadium from campus.\n"But if I wanted to get to the stadium from our house, the B bus would be helpful," he said.\nMaull said the new revisions will save time and help the B bus stay on schedule, something that has not been happening lately.\n"That'll save us six minutes for each time the bus goes around the loop," he said. "It's amazing how much time builds up over a day when you think of all the buses going back and forth."\nThe new route will allow the service to run with fewer buses, Maull said, but the schedule will remain the same.\nMaull said the changes will allow buses to stay on the same route all day, whereas currently a bus driver could drive the A route and then switch to the X route.\n"It really gets a better connection between our buses and the passengers," he said, "because those buses will be on that route all day"