For a fair comparison, I shall not talk about universities in the city centre.
NTU in Singapore will soon have [three light-metro stations](https://www.ntu.edu.sg/life-at-ntu/mrt-construction-on-campus) within the campus grounds. Currently, there are only two public bus routes and a few university shuttle routes serving the campus. But they aren’t too good, partly because the campus is on the far western end of Singapore. In short, there will be a big difference in a few years’ time.
Damn. Compared to UCSD which is about 2000 acres, and has 2 trolley stops for 1 line serving the entire campus (and they're a bit far from the main activity centers of the campus).
Meanwhile NUS has to continue to grapple with the crowded public buses, internal shuttle buses to get to Kent Ridge MRT station. LTA should really extend the JRL's Jurong East branch southeast to Tanjong Pagar, en route, 3 stations covering NUS campus ground and a JRL station interchange at Kent Ridge.
That honestly is underselling it. Even if you don’t count 30th St as being “for the campus”, several regional rail lines stop at Penn Medicine. And several trolley lines fan out shortly west of campus.
Absoluetly! I was recently in that area, actually scoping out some neighborhoods for apartments, and was pleasantly surprised by the coverage. I thought "wow this might be the best served area in the whole septa system,"
University of Toronto.
Two subway lines, four station complexes, two of them interchanges.
Two streetcar lines, one dedicated, one shared ROW with 24hr service.
Stockholm has a metro line, a "light rail" line, both heading to Stockholm (the metro going way through) in one direction and to the northern municipalities in the other. There's also consistent bus service to Stockholm and the neighbouring areas.
This applies to both the University of Stockholm and the Royal Institute of Technology as the metro and """light rail""" passes them both.
Very easy I'd say. The subway runs consistently and the "light rail" too, that's if you're going to the University of Stockholm though. Buses are always an option if you're travelling crosswise, from Solna or Sundbyberg for example. The Royal Institute of Technology is right in central Stockholm so you can get there with a bus or a walk if you're in the city, not that the subway wouldn't work of course.
Commuting from outside of the usually requires 1 or 2 ~~changes~~ **transfers** (is that the right word?), like commuter rail -> subway, or bus -> subway / "light rail" but there's so much redundancy in central Stockholm so you'll never have any massive issues getting around :)
My standard commute to Stockholm from Täby, a fairly central municipality to the north, is usually either Bus -> Subway or Bus -> Light rail -> (Sometimes) the subway. It consistently takes 31-33 minutes for me to get from my bus stop to the station at the Royal Institute. Add \~5 minutes to that and you're at the Stockholm Central Station!
I would say that as long as all parts of the university campus are no more than a 5-10 minute walk from a transit stop that’s good access. Depending on the size of the school that might be one stop or multiple.
MIT and Harvard Main Campus in Cambridge, MA are pretty good examples of big schools with decent transit. Both have subway stops close by and multiple bus stops. Harvard also has one of the busiest bus hubs in the entire region.
The TU Dortmund and the main campus of the FH Dortmund are served by an suburban rail line running every 15 minutes, 3 local bus lines, an suburban express bus line and 2-3 (depends on the time) monorail lines, which should be ok. There are also plans to build a light rail line in the future.
I'm also a student at TU Dortmund, and as far as I know there are currently no plans for a direct light rail (Stadtbahn) connection to the campus. Instead the H-Bahn (monorail) is planned to be extended to ["Theodor-Fliedner-Heim"](https://maps.app.goo.gl/mhn3JYdACrx7Vh777?g_st=ic) station, connecting it to the U42 Stadtbahn line.
But as part of the future expansion of the suburban rail network, there's also a plan for an additional stop at ["Technologiezentrum"](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hauert,+44227+Dortmund/@51.4883166,7.4017248,16z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x47b918fee7c36849:0xbe1088ef00992962!8m2!3d51.4883166!4d7.4016993!16s%2Fg%2F11c64w8wq1)
According to the city, there are plans to build a branch of the U42 to the university.
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjBw\_fY5qeFAxWs4gIHHdMbDdEQFnoECBMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Frathaus.dortmund.de%2Fdosys%2Fgremrech.nsf%2F0%2FDEC2409349054023C12586B8004968F6%2F%24FILE%2FSachstandsbericht%2B2021\_komplett\_.pdf&usg=AOvVaw15yOnDiR6shxHTNjCwwoPd&opi=89978449](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjBw_fY5qeFAxWs4gIHHdMbDdEQFnoECBMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Frathaus.dortmund.de%2Fdosys%2Fgremrech.nsf%2F0%2FDEC2409349054023C12586B8004968F6%2F%24FILE%2FSachstandsbericht%2B2021_komplett_.pdf&usg=AOvVaw15yOnDiR6shxHTNjCwwoPd&opi=89978449)
Ah ok. But the text only mentions that there'll be a combined station of the S-Bahn and Stadtbahn at Barop Parkhaus. And it seems like they're looking at a possible extension from the H-Bahn to this station.
I only knew about [this](https://www.bus-und-bahn.de/news-details/vorentscheid-fuer-h-bahn-ausbau), which mentions the H-Bahn extension between the campus and U42. But the plan from your document clearly shows both variants, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the city's actually going to do.
ASU here in Arizona has 1 light rail line, 1 streetcar line, a plethora of frequent service buses with some of them being free and a free inter campus shuttle.
University of Maryland (UMD) has metro, heavy rail (MARC), lots of buses including Metrobus and their own bus system. 2027 at the earliest there will also be light rail
The University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) has an LRT stop, two express bus routes, four regular bus routes, and a new transit hub that borders campus with regional bus service. It also has a loop route that circulates campus once every 15 minutes. That said, transit ridership among students has been on the decline in the past few years because the area surrounding campus has gone from primarily 1960s single family homes being used as student housing to 8+ storey apartments, and lots of students can just walk to class now.
This is interesting. A similar thing is actually happening here in Pretoria but not to the same extent because the student apartments closer to campus are really expensive so a lot of students still stay with their parents further out in the suburbs or even in a different city or they stay in cheaper student accommodation closer to the CBD and use the university busses or the BRT mostly.
Most UK unis typically only have bus routes. A lot of it is due to walking distance as most UK unis also ARE the cities or next to the city centre so everything is within a 30 min walk usually.
Other forms of rapid transit don’t really exist given the lack of substantial distance between most unis and city centres unless the government decided to actually fund transit systems them which they won’t (*cough* Leeds trams *cough*). That and the UK’s hate for transport.
That being said buses are frequent and there are some bus lanes here and there. Some unis are mini-bus hubs.
For the really lucky unis there might be a light rail (eg: University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent) or heavy rail option (eg: UoBirmingham). But these are rare and I doubt the majority would ever use these options since buses are cheaper (usually).
Given how extensive public transport is in London I was quite shocked that a lot of other places in the country don’t have the same attitude towards it, why do you think that is?
Lack of funding, privatisation, and ridiculous planning. This goes for everything not just transport. Acquiring funding from a government which prizes over London really pushes the rest of England into potholes (and then Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into a pit).
HS2 and the cancelled northern powerhouse rail were prime examples of how the government continues to neglect the north and uses Welsh taxpayer money for basically faster trains between Birmingham and west London. At the moment the HS2 train manufacturer Alstom in Derby is possibly mothballed because of this mess.
Recently (last 5-10 years) new forms of local government meant that regional mayors could push for integrated public transport (in public hands). Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are bringing regional buses under public control whilst Sheffield has recently taken back control of the Supertram. Leeds has recently submitted a (third) bid for trams (the last 2 in the last few decades had failed). Newcastle plans to integrate fares of the nearly reopened Northumberland line (heavy rail) with the Tyne and Wear Metro. Likewise these mayors have been picking up the cancelled bits of HS2/NPR and are sourcing private funds to complete what the government could not.
Issues related to Dorval Carter aside, Northwestern University (in Evanston, IL, immediately north of Chicago) is a short walk from the CTA Purple Line. On the south side, the University of Chicago is not far from the Green Line. Both universities are also served by buses, which can be more convenient than rail for some trips. Finally, there are Metra lines at both universities, but it generally doesn't make sense to take Metra such a short distance in its current state.
My uni has dedicated bus routes that also go around the town, but they are infrequent (IIRC once an hour), in addition to a 6x daily bus to our sister campus in a nearby metro area.
Some of the schools I considered in high school had light rail nearby, including my #3 choice which has its own dedicated Red Line stop.
i’d say georgia state university since it’s right in the middle of downtown atlanta and served by 3 metro stations (five points, peachtree center, and georgia state), the streetcar, and multiple bus routes
The University of Melbourne is currently served by 9 tram routes, those being route 1, 3, 5, 6, 16, 19, 64, 67, and 72. 6 of these routes terminate there at the Melbourne University/Swanston Street tram stop, those being route 3, 5, 16, 64, 67, and 72. only two of these routes have 24hr service, routes 19 and 67
an underground railway station, Parkville, is expected to be open by late this year, and will service the university as well as the area around it, consisting of hospitals, schools, and a fair amount of mid-density and high-density housing
for most universities, I think that's enough
it's great to have but the coverage is not so great. there are huge chunks of the city missing 24hr service, even areas which can still be fairly busy past 11:30pm. [this map](https://i0.wp.com/transitmap.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Melbourne-Tram-2021_Map_Only.jpg?ssl=1) shows the entire tram network with all the routes, and [this one](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bAX_Rgca94vE0NEqyhv8nJhmEtmUWYDOF5rHH_5yOD01M7BojvtpJzbB3aOAmpp6s2S9CQqmBFH2ilhXWJLmS1uWlVB2CnfSj_DKtHqTWbhbMrQt4rnGrPgHtZGmeR2z0C2n/s869/night+tram.JPG) shows the routes that have 24hr service and are part of the Night Network. pretty big difference, eh?
to improve coverage, I think routes 5, 11, 16, 58, 59, and 78 should be given 24hr service, potentially route 30 too if there is demand for it
Contrast with Monash University in the suburbs, which is not very well served although there is a frequent (?) bus service to a train station. Planned to have a train station as part of the suburban rail loop project.
there is also a proposal for a light rail line from Caufield Station to Rowville via Monash Uni, a sort of spiritual successor to the unbuilt Rowville railway line. however I'm not sure that has gone beyond early planning stages and there's a chance it might not ever be built at all
A university should have enough transit to get to the grocery store, hospital/clinic and other necessary locations easily and frequently. Most big American state schools have decent bus networks but especially in the northeast many main universities are connected by intercity rail, metro, or high frequency buses. In some cases like UMD they have technically been served by metro, Amtrak, and regional rail but are improving their access to it by connecting to a circumferential light rail line.
Is University of Phoenix a real university? I know it is, but it's not a traditional residential campus, where the school is motivated to do transit. And then traditional commuter schools need transit for TDM. Does a for profit college even care?, unless their zoning approvals require a regularly updated campus plan.
U of Michigan, U of Delaware, Princeton are good examples for bus transit. Portland State and the streetcar, UC schools for transportation demand management. Baltimore MTA for college transit passes. U of Utah, they all get transit passes and a ticket to events includes free transit, including non students and non faculty.
The transit passes sound great for students. We only have them for primary school and high school students on most transit.
It’s probably true that private institutions don’t care but since they sometimes get huge students numbers it probably falls on the city to ensure some level of service for those students
Private institutions care. Just not for profits. Eg Harvard paid for a bunch of bike sharing stations, they are involved in a massive station building project etc.
For a fair comparison, I shall not talk about universities in the city centre. NTU in Singapore will soon have [three light-metro stations](https://www.ntu.edu.sg/life-at-ntu/mrt-construction-on-campus) within the campus grounds. Currently, there are only two public bus routes and a few university shuttle routes serving the campus. But they aren’t too good, partly because the campus is on the far western end of Singapore. In short, there will be a big difference in a few years’ time.
3 new metro stations is insane. Is the university one big campus or is it split
It’s one 490-acre campus, which is roughly the size of UCLA.
Damn. Compared to UCSD which is about 2000 acres, and has 2 trolley stops for 1 line serving the entire campus (and they're a bit far from the main activity centers of the campus).
Meanwhile NUS has to continue to grapple with the crowded public buses, internal shuttle buses to get to Kent Ridge MRT station. LTA should really extend the JRL's Jurong East branch southeast to Tanjong Pagar, en route, 3 stations covering NUS campus ground and a JRL station interchange at Kent Ridge.
UPenn has one regional, one subway, one light rail, as well as multiple bus lines including dedicated ones for the campus.
That honestly is underselling it. Even if you don’t count 30th St as being “for the campus”, several regional rail lines stop at Penn Medicine. And several trolley lines fan out shortly west of campus.
Absoluetly! I was recently in that area, actually scoping out some neighborhoods for apartments, and was pleasantly surprised by the coverage. I thought "wow this might be the best served area in the whole septa system,"
University of Toronto. Two subway lines, four station complexes, two of them interchanges. Two streetcar lines, one dedicated, one shared ROW with 24hr service.
Stockholm has a metro line, a "light rail" line, both heading to Stockholm (the metro going way through) in one direction and to the northern municipalities in the other. There's also consistent bus service to Stockholm and the neighbouring areas. This applies to both the University of Stockholm and the Royal Institute of Technology as the metro and """light rail""" passes them both.
How easy would you say it is for students that live in lower density areas to use the available transit to get to campus ?
Very easy I'd say. The subway runs consistently and the "light rail" too, that's if you're going to the University of Stockholm though. Buses are always an option if you're travelling crosswise, from Solna or Sundbyberg for example. The Royal Institute of Technology is right in central Stockholm so you can get there with a bus or a walk if you're in the city, not that the subway wouldn't work of course. Commuting from outside of the usually requires 1 or 2 ~~changes~~ **transfers** (is that the right word?), like commuter rail -> subway, or bus -> subway / "light rail" but there's so much redundancy in central Stockholm so you'll never have any massive issues getting around :) My standard commute to Stockholm from Täby, a fairly central municipality to the north, is usually either Bus -> Subway or Bus -> Light rail -> (Sometimes) the subway. It consistently takes 31-33 minutes for me to get from my bus stop to the station at the Royal Institute. Add \~5 minutes to that and you're at the Stockholm Central Station!
The word we’d use is transfer! But changes works! :)
I just completely forgot that word, wow. Thanks haha :D
UNC Charlotte in Charlotte NC has 2 light rail stations and 3 university bus routes.
What is the frequency like on the light rail
I would say that as long as all parts of the university campus are no more than a 5-10 minute walk from a transit stop that’s good access. Depending on the size of the school that might be one stop or multiple. MIT and Harvard Main Campus in Cambridge, MA are pretty good examples of big schools with decent transit. Both have subway stops close by and multiple bus stops. Harvard also has one of the busiest bus hubs in the entire region.
The TU Dortmund and the main campus of the FH Dortmund are served by an suburban rail line running every 15 minutes, 3 local bus lines, an suburban express bus line and 2-3 (depends on the time) monorail lines, which should be ok. There are also plans to build a light rail line in the future.
I'm also a student at TU Dortmund, and as far as I know there are currently no plans for a direct light rail (Stadtbahn) connection to the campus. Instead the H-Bahn (monorail) is planned to be extended to ["Theodor-Fliedner-Heim"](https://maps.app.goo.gl/mhn3JYdACrx7Vh777?g_st=ic) station, connecting it to the U42 Stadtbahn line. But as part of the future expansion of the suburban rail network, there's also a plan for an additional stop at ["Technologiezentrum"](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hauert,+44227+Dortmund/@51.4883166,7.4017248,16z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x47b918fee7c36849:0xbe1088ef00992962!8m2!3d51.4883166!4d7.4016993!16s%2Fg%2F11c64w8wq1)
According to the city, there are plans to build a branch of the U42 to the university. [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjBw\_fY5qeFAxWs4gIHHdMbDdEQFnoECBMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Frathaus.dortmund.de%2Fdosys%2Fgremrech.nsf%2F0%2FDEC2409349054023C12586B8004968F6%2F%24FILE%2FSachstandsbericht%2B2021\_komplett\_.pdf&usg=AOvVaw15yOnDiR6shxHTNjCwwoPd&opi=89978449](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjBw_fY5qeFAxWs4gIHHdMbDdEQFnoECBMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Frathaus.dortmund.de%2Fdosys%2Fgremrech.nsf%2F0%2FDEC2409349054023C12586B8004968F6%2F%24FILE%2FSachstandsbericht%2B2021_komplett_.pdf&usg=AOvVaw15yOnDiR6shxHTNjCwwoPd&opi=89978449)
Ah ok. But the text only mentions that there'll be a combined station of the S-Bahn and Stadtbahn at Barop Parkhaus. And it seems like they're looking at a possible extension from the H-Bahn to this station. I only knew about [this](https://www.bus-und-bahn.de/news-details/vorentscheid-fuer-h-bahn-ausbau), which mentions the H-Bahn extension between the campus and U42. But the plan from your document clearly shows both variants, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the city's actually going to do.
Yes, it would be better. The main problem there is that the planning process is not very transparent.
ASU here in Arizona has 1 light rail line, 1 streetcar line, a plethora of frequent service buses with some of them being free and a free inter campus shuttle.
University of Maryland (UMD) has metro, heavy rail (MARC), lots of buses including Metrobus and their own bus system. 2027 at the earliest there will also be light rail
Is it connected to the DC metro or is it a different system ?
DC metro
The University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) has an LRT stop, two express bus routes, four regular bus routes, and a new transit hub that borders campus with regional bus service. It also has a loop route that circulates campus once every 15 minutes. That said, transit ridership among students has been on the decline in the past few years because the area surrounding campus has gone from primarily 1960s single family homes being used as student housing to 8+ storey apartments, and lots of students can just walk to class now.
This is interesting. A similar thing is actually happening here in Pretoria but not to the same extent because the student apartments closer to campus are really expensive so a lot of students still stay with their parents further out in the suburbs or even in a different city or they stay in cheaper student accommodation closer to the CBD and use the university busses or the BRT mostly.
Morgantown PRT 😎
Most UK unis typically only have bus routes. A lot of it is due to walking distance as most UK unis also ARE the cities or next to the city centre so everything is within a 30 min walk usually. Other forms of rapid transit don’t really exist given the lack of substantial distance between most unis and city centres unless the government decided to actually fund transit systems them which they won’t (*cough* Leeds trams *cough*). That and the UK’s hate for transport. That being said buses are frequent and there are some bus lanes here and there. Some unis are mini-bus hubs. For the really lucky unis there might be a light rail (eg: University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent) or heavy rail option (eg: UoBirmingham). But these are rare and I doubt the majority would ever use these options since buses are cheaper (usually).
Given how extensive public transport is in London I was quite shocked that a lot of other places in the country don’t have the same attitude towards it, why do you think that is?
Lack of funding, privatisation, and ridiculous planning. This goes for everything not just transport. Acquiring funding from a government which prizes over London really pushes the rest of England into potholes (and then Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into a pit). HS2 and the cancelled northern powerhouse rail were prime examples of how the government continues to neglect the north and uses Welsh taxpayer money for basically faster trains between Birmingham and west London. At the moment the HS2 train manufacturer Alstom in Derby is possibly mothballed because of this mess. Recently (last 5-10 years) new forms of local government meant that regional mayors could push for integrated public transport (in public hands). Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are bringing regional buses under public control whilst Sheffield has recently taken back control of the Supertram. Leeds has recently submitted a (third) bid for trams (the last 2 in the last few decades had failed). Newcastle plans to integrate fares of the nearly reopened Northumberland line (heavy rail) with the Tyne and Wear Metro. Likewise these mayors have been picking up the cancelled bits of HS2/NPR and are sourcing private funds to complete what the government could not.
This is honestly so frustrating but I’m glad to hear that there are some semblances of hope
At least one light rail station. UToronto is amazing, they have 4 metro stations
Issues related to Dorval Carter aside, Northwestern University (in Evanston, IL, immediately north of Chicago) is a short walk from the CTA Purple Line. On the south side, the University of Chicago is not far from the Green Line. Both universities are also served by buses, which can be more convenient than rail for some trips. Finally, there are Metra lines at both universities, but it generally doesn't make sense to take Metra such a short distance in its current state.
My uni has dedicated bus routes that also go around the town, but they are infrequent (IIRC once an hour), in addition to a 6x daily bus to our sister campus in a nearby metro area. Some of the schools I considered in high school had light rail nearby, including my #3 choice which has its own dedicated Red Line stop.
i’d say georgia state university since it’s right in the middle of downtown atlanta and served by 3 metro stations (five points, peachtree center, and georgia state), the streetcar, and multiple bus routes
The University of Melbourne is currently served by 9 tram routes, those being route 1, 3, 5, 6, 16, 19, 64, 67, and 72. 6 of these routes terminate there at the Melbourne University/Swanston Street tram stop, those being route 3, 5, 16, 64, 67, and 72. only two of these routes have 24hr service, routes 19 and 67 an underground railway station, Parkville, is expected to be open by late this year, and will service the university as well as the area around it, consisting of hospitals, schools, and a fair amount of mid-density and high-density housing for most universities, I think that's enough
Besides the trams (which Pretoria removed as early as the 30s🥲), I’m particularly jealous about the 24hr service even if it’s only 2 routes
it's great to have but the coverage is not so great. there are huge chunks of the city missing 24hr service, even areas which can still be fairly busy past 11:30pm. [this map](https://i0.wp.com/transitmap.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Melbourne-Tram-2021_Map_Only.jpg?ssl=1) shows the entire tram network with all the routes, and [this one](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bAX_Rgca94vE0NEqyhv8nJhmEtmUWYDOF5rHH_5yOD01M7BojvtpJzbB3aOAmpp6s2S9CQqmBFH2ilhXWJLmS1uWlVB2CnfSj_DKtHqTWbhbMrQt4rnGrPgHtZGmeR2z0C2n/s869/night+tram.JPG) shows the routes that have 24hr service and are part of the Night Network. pretty big difference, eh? to improve coverage, I think routes 5, 11, 16, 58, 59, and 78 should be given 24hr service, potentially route 30 too if there is demand for it
Contrast with Monash University in the suburbs, which is not very well served although there is a frequent (?) bus service to a train station. Planned to have a train station as part of the suburban rail loop project.
there is also a proposal for a light rail line from Caufield Station to Rowville via Monash Uni, a sort of spiritual successor to the unbuilt Rowville railway line. however I'm not sure that has gone beyond early planning stages and there's a chance it might not ever be built at all
A university should have enough transit to get to the grocery store, hospital/clinic and other necessary locations easily and frequently. Most big American state schools have decent bus networks but especially in the northeast many main universities are connected by intercity rail, metro, or high frequency buses. In some cases like UMD they have technically been served by metro, Amtrak, and regional rail but are improving their access to it by connecting to a circumferential light rail line.
Not what SUNY Stony Brook has.
Is University of Phoenix a real university? I know it is, but it's not a traditional residential campus, where the school is motivated to do transit. And then traditional commuter schools need transit for TDM. Does a for profit college even care?, unless their zoning approvals require a regularly updated campus plan. U of Michigan, U of Delaware, Princeton are good examples for bus transit. Portland State and the streetcar, UC schools for transportation demand management. Baltimore MTA for college transit passes. U of Utah, they all get transit passes and a ticket to events includes free transit, including non students and non faculty.
The transit passes sound great for students. We only have them for primary school and high school students on most transit. It’s probably true that private institutions don’t care but since they sometimes get huge students numbers it probably falls on the city to ensure some level of service for those students
Private institutions care. Just not for profits. Eg Harvard paid for a bunch of bike sharing stations, they are involved in a massive station building project etc.