New Shuttle Route Connects Harvard Campuses

Harvard Transportation Services introduced a new shuttle route on Monday that will connect the Cambridge and Allston campuses in an extended loop from 7:20 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. on weekdays.

The route, temporarily called “Allston Campus III,” will circle around both sides of the Charles River, bringing passengers from Soldiers Field Park to the Business School, the stadium, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Square, Harvard Law School, Maxwell Dworkin, Memorial Hall, Lamont Library, and back to Allston.

The two shuttle buses on the new cross-campus route will provide service every 20 minutes.

Prior to Monday, the only services linking the Cambridge and Allston campuses were the Soldiers Field Park routes, which ran from 7:20 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, leaving no shuttles for commuters to cross the river from late morning to mid-afternoon or in the late evenings.

Even when service was available, those shuttles only came about every 45 minutes.

“It’s a major, major improvement for the two campuses,” said Carl A. Tempesta, manager of facilities for Passenger Transport Services.

David E. Harris Jr., general manager of Passenger Transport Services, said that a team of Campus Services leaders began plotting the new route last fall, when plans for the new Innovation Lab at the Business School were being finalized.

Tempesta said that the team that designed the route hopes the service will not only better serve athletes, but also University formal events.

In order to accommodate the new shuttle route, Transport Services will be adding two newly reconditioned shuttles to its fleet.

The 35-foot shuttles, which were delivered to Harvard this Saturday, will have “slightly upscaled” cushioned seats.

A few face-to-face seats on the shuttles will have pull-down table tops between them.

The shuttles are being painted with Harvard insignias and outfitted with GPS systems, Harris said. He anticipates that the shuttles will be up and running within the next three weeks.

“We hope that the service will be well-received by the Harvard community,” Harris said.

He also encouraged riders to provide feedback on the new route. “We hope people will take advantage of the service and ride the shuttle,” he said.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.