CATA, Penn State Traffic Return to Normal — with Some Adjustments

After a summer season of campus road construction and reduced mass-transit service, transportation has largely returned to normal at Penn State’s University Park campus.

The Centre Area Transportation Authority, which scaled back bus-route service during the less-busy summer-semester months, resumed its full service schedule on Saturday.

‘We (had) fewer buses on the street, and services on several of our routes (were) cut back due to the lessened demand for service’ during the summer, said CATA spokeswoman Jacqueline Sheader.

That reduced service schedule meant that buses stopped running about 12:30 a.m. on weekends. With Penn State classes set to resume Monday, though, service is running again until 2:30 a.m. on weekends.

At the same time, students returning for the fall semester will notice a variety of service changes, CATA noted in a news release. Declining state and federal support has forced the transit agency to adjust service on virtually all routes, it says.

Most notably, CATA reported, the agency has eliminated the AP (University Park) route, merged the G and Z routes into the G (Stormstown) route, and combined the H and P routes into the HP (Toftrees/Scenery Park) route.

A complete rundown of all the changes is available via the CATA website and in the Fall 2011 Ride Guide, which is available on all CATA buses.

On the construction front, a months-long Penn State project to rebuild Shortlidge Road between East College Avenue and Pollock Road is now complete, allowing traffic — including CATA buses — to resume normal patterns there.

That stretch of Shortlidge had been closed since early summer as crews made modifications to enable underground chilled-water services to South Halls. The project was designed in light of planned renovations to South Halls; its timing will prevent any construction disturbances from upsetting research in the Millennium Science Complex once that new building is operational, according to the university.

In addition, the Shortlidge project has brought new sidewalks, landscaping and energy-efficient LED lighting to the campus thoroughfare. It reopened to normal traffic on Aug. 12.

Earlier coverage

• First Exterior Ads Appear on CATA Buses; Service Changes Announced, Too (Aug. 2, 2011)