Tiger Transit Bus on Nassau Street, Princeton. (click to expand)

Princeton University runs one of the biggest bus networks in the state of New Jersey, with its ‘Tiger Transit‘ program, and this week, the University started trials on two new services, in addition to the eleven others that it typically runs. Although the test bus lines are geared toward undergraduates, the University normally allows local residents to ride Tiger Transit, and one of the routes could offer some local people a useful new transit link to the Princeton Rail station on Alexander Street.

The two pilot projects (archived here) are intended to make it easier for students to get across campus from west to east, and to make it easier to get to the University Boathouse on Lake Carnegie. Buses on the first of these services, the ‘EQuad Loop’, run past the Friend Center and EQuad (Olden Street) via the Woodrow Wilson Center, on to Palmer Square, and then the Dinky Station. The trip takes just 10 mins. Residents in, for example, Princeton’s “Tree Streets” neighborhood might find this shuttle a convenient way to get to the train station. Notably, the first EQuad loop bus of the day passes the Friend Center at 7.51 a.m., and gets to Princeton station at 8.01 am., in time for the 8.12 a.m. Dinky service that connects with the express train to New York. It’s like the bus service was set up to make it easier for people to ride the Dinky, as some local residents have been calling for.

Right now the service is being marketed to undergraduates only, and the trial is scheduled to end on Friday, March 11. Under the current hours of operation, the service would be of limited use for city commuters on their way home, because it stops running at 7 p.m. Local residents also have access to the FreeB commuter service, a shuttle bus funded by the town which also connects to Princeton Rail station. In recent months, ride-hailing service Uber has also announced that Princeton Junction rail station is one of its top New Jersey ride destinations.

(H/T Caroline Lippman, Daily Princetonian)