Catch a Bus to Campus!

Maybe you’ve seen those large, green-striped busses that are roaring around the IPFW campus. Meet campusLink, the latest addition to transportation for students at IPFW and IVY Tech. “Within twenty minutes, we’ll get you where you’re trying to go,” promised Betsy Kachmar, Assistant Manager for the Citilink Transit System. CampusLink is a division of the Citilink Transit System.

This new bus route began with the start of the fall 2009 semester. “We had been in discussions with people at IV Tech and IPFW for four or five years,” noted Kachmar, “(The bus system) didn’t become possible until we had applied for a Federal grant.”
The Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Control grant pays for eighty percent of the costs for running the campusLink system – IPFW and IVY Tech split the last twenty percent of costs.

Rides on the campusLink bus are free, and rides are available to anyone who can reach the bus – not just to students. In November, fifteen percent of all campusLink passengers were non-University people. As an extra bargain to encourage more people to use the entire city bus system, Citilink is offering month-long passes to anyone associated with the University for $9, instead of the regular $45.

Three busses are currently running the routes from Evard, Reed and St. Joe Center Road all the way to the Scotts grocery store on State Street. People riding the bus can access the campusLink system to do chores or to get to classes. But, just to make sure that passengers are headed in the right direction, Kachmar says: “Ask the driver if they’re headed in your direction!” For exact listings and routes of the CitiLink bus system and the campusLink services, see www.fwcitilink.com.