Porter Loop Adds a Late-Evening Depot Line to Main Street, Thursday Through Saturday

The Porter Loop shuttle will add a third route this Thursday, January 29, the first week of the spring semester. The Depot Line is an evening service between campus and downtown Porter Falls that will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights through the end of the semester as a pilot.

Students already ride the city buses free with a city bus pass, but the city’s downtown routes stop at 9 p.m. After that, the options have been a 25-minute walk along the Riverfront Trail, a ride-hail car if one happens to be in town, or driving. Student government has asked for late service for three years running, and a fall survey of 1,140 students found that 62 percent go downtown in the evening at least twice a month.

The pilot costs about $64,000 for the semester. Student government is putting in $46,000 from reserves, and the city of Porter Falls is adding $18,000. Downtown businesses also wanted the route, as did the city’s police department, which would prefer students not walk the trail at 1 a.m. in February.

“We’re going to count every rider, every stop, every night. If it gets used, we’ll make the case for making it permanent. If it doesn’t, we’ll have spent one semester finding out. Either way we’ll know.”

— Anders Skogen, Dean of Students

All Depot Line vehicles are wheelchair accessible. Riders who need door-to-door service can still use accessible shuttle booking, which now covers the same evening hours. Live vehicle positions are in the Porter Loop shuttle tracker in MyPorter. For what is open downtown after dark, the Depot District guide is a good place to start.

Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu