[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/bus_edited.jpg” caption=”Changes to HSR bus routes will take effect Sept. 2. File photo.”]Some changes are being made to HSR bus routes to campus starting Sept. 2. The B-line buses will be re-routed from the current King/Sterling/University alignment and will instead travel along Main Street and use the existing stops in front of the McMaster hospital and Emerson Street.

“McMaster's Campus Plan emphasizes the University's goal of maintaining and strengthening the pedestrian nature of campus, and in order to achieve that goal, the number of buses moving through the centre core of campus needed to be reduced,” says Terry Sullivan, director of parking and security. “The City requirement that trucks coming to campus must use the centre core made it necessary to ask the HSR to develop a plan to reduce the bus traffic.”

Jim Dahms is the manager of transit planning for the HSR. He says that moving the B-line rather than one of the other bus routes through campus was the best decision as it means better future alignment with the potential new Light Rapid transit or Bus Rapid transit corridor along Main Street.

The other bus routes that come to campus will continue to follow their usual routes. Route maps are available at the Compass Information Centre in the McMaster University Student Centre.

Sullivan says the University will keep working with the HSR to find longer term solutions to enhancing bus service to campus while maintaining the University's goal to not have any buses run directly through the centre of campus within three years. He says McMaster has also asked the HSR to continue to ensure that safety is a top priority for students, staff, faculty and visitors who use the bus to get to and from campus.