Hybrid buses to run on campus for Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day on April 22, two energy-efficient hybrid buses will provide shuttle service on Northern Arizona University’s primary north-south campus route.

The electric hybrid buses will serve campus along with NAU’s Mountain Campus Transit buses. The hybrids will run from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the route that travels from the Skydome west to the Franke College of Business and the Castro Social and Behavioral Sciences building and north on Knoles to the Adel Mathematics building.

The buses are from the Mountain Line bus service operated in Flagstaff by the Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Transportation Authority.

“We appreciate the opportunity to team up with Mountain Line and promote greater environmental awareness on Earth Day,” said Jack Shambaugh, manager of NAU Parking Services.

Shambaugh noted that the campus shuttle service promotes environmental citizenship year-round by providing transportation across campus as an alternative to individual cars.

In the past year, Shambaugh said Mountain Campus Transit has provided an expanded evening route and worked with Transportation Services on campus to improve reliability of service. Mountain Campus Transit also instituted a non-stop express van service from the Castro SBS building to the University Union.

A ballot initiative that is part of the city of Flagstaff vote-by-mail general election May 20 proposes that NAIPTA’s bus service link downtown Flagstaff and the Woodlands Village area through the NAU campus. NAU and NAIPTA signed an intergovernmental agreement last fall that laid the groundwork for NAIPTA to assume operation and management of NAU’s transit system.