City and university officials Thursday celebrated the near completion of the new Mountain Link city bus route that connects the university with nearby residential and retail areas.
The high-frequency bus service linking downtown Flagstaff, NAU and Woodlands Village will begin operation on Monday, Aug. 29. View a map of the new route here.
“In many ways, our hope is that the transit line better unites the university with the community and that our students… fan out into the community at large and become even more of an economic force,” said NAU President John Haeger at Thursday’s Mountain Link launch event.
He added that the new route also reinforces NAU’s sustainability efforts by making the campus more walkable.
Faculty, staff and students can ride the Mountain Link route for free with an NAU ID.
Mountain Link buses will run every 10-15 minutes during the week and every 40 minutes on weekends along the 23-stop route, which includes a stretch on campus dedicated to link traffic only. Meanwhile, the NAU shuttle will continue to run along its normal route through campus.
Thursday’s launch event was held at the link’s Stop 1, on the corner of Beaver Street and Phoenix Avenue, followed by an inaugural bus ride along the new NAU transit spine.