BLACKSBURG, Va. – On June 24, Blacksburg Transit’s center hub will no longer be at Burrus Hall, and will be moved to the new Transit Center Loops.
To learn more about the new changes, I went to the headquarters for Blacksburg Transit to talk to them about what people can expect.
“[For] [all] of our off-campus routes, the transit center will be the destination,” said Brian Booth, transit director. “Then there will be additional routes that circulate throughout campus to move passengers from the transit center and throughout campus.”
He said it should only affect those routes going through campus, but the change will save them significant time.
“The routes off campus are not changing a lot, its where the route goes on campus is what’s changing,” said Booth. “During class change, if a bus has to circle the Drillfield, it can take as much as 10 to 15 minutes to make a full loop.”
After talking to Booth, I met up with the spokesperson for Virginia Tech to talk about how this will impact the university.
“It’ll put them right where they need to be in terms of access to our fundamental and primary classroom spaces, our laboratory spaces, campus dining halls and all of that,” Mark Owczarski said.
He said one major aspect is the campus will still be accessible.
I then hopped on a bus to check out one of the current routes, and then to talk to someone who uses the buses every day for their thoughts on the upcoming changes.
“I’m going to miss waiting over here for the bus that’s for sure, but I don’t know the change and how that’ll happen so [I’ll] just wait to see, then we can give feedback to go on it,” said one man riding the bus.
He said as an international student, having public transportation has been essential to getting around.
Officials with Blacksburg Transit said they are starting this in June so they have two months to prepare for students in August.