New transportation options have been implemented at St. Olaf for the 2024-2025 academic year, aiming to address past student feedback about a lack of options. On Sep. 23, an email from Vice President of Business and Finance Mike Berthelsen was sent out to the student body detailing each option.
The Northfield Lines Metro Express has expanded their route to include a stop at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities on Fridays through Sundays, alongside a reduced round-trip weekend rate of $30 — $15 one-way.
“We focused on when we thought students would be most likely to want to get to the Twin Cities,” Berthelsen said. “We picked the University of Minnesota because it’s the biggest hub of transit activity in Minnesota, and it’s also a college campus… and we knew that $35 one-way was too high. We heard that strongly from students.”
Another expanded option is the Campus-Go shuttle service. Formerly Oles-Go, the service is now combined with Carleton’s shuttle service. Campus-Go provides daytime transportation in Northfield and Dundas for students to get to medical appointments, pharmacy trips, or to volunteer or work locally. “Their [Carleton’s] students are trying to get to the same places as our students, and sometimes their service is busy when ours isn’t and vice-versa,” Berthelsen said. “If we have two drivers at all times instead, we believe there will be faster service with less wait time.”
A new service, Zipcar, has also become available to students. Zipcar is a $35 annual subscription service that allows hourly car rentals for $9.50 an hour. Zipcar is managed through Carleton, so the rental cars are located on the Carleton campus. “The vans we have here are for organizations or college business, so this enables students to drive themselves around and get to other appointments,” said Director of Auxiliaries and Buntrock Commons Brain Ims.
The transportation team will be closely tracking the usage of these new and expanded options to gauge success and to inform future changes.
Looking ahead, Northfield is investing in a new transit hub — connected to the historic depot — that will serve as a connection point for local and regional buses and other transportation options. With this investment, the team hopes to engage with the city to find other opportunities for expanded options such as revisiting the Hiawathaland bus service, which is currently a popular option with students. “We are in conversation with them to see what adjusted lines or pathways might make sense,” Berthelsen said.
Students can find all transportation options available to them at St. Olaf’s transportation website.
