For Binghamton University students living at U Club Binghamton, getting to Downtown Binghamton and to campus has been a challenge. But now, a long-promised shuttle bus service is finally taking shape.

The proposed shuttle will hold 25 to 30 students and will provide transportation to campus Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Downtown shuttle will run Thursday to Sunday, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., and will be modeled after the schedule for the Off Campus College Transport and Broome County Transit buses. Both shuttles are intended to run every 15 minutes. The Downtown route is still being finalized, but will stop somewhere near the University Downtown Center.

The idea of a shuttle service from U Club to Downtown has been in progress for over a year, according to Dan Barry, regional manager for American Campus, which bought University Plaza apartments a year and a half ago and changed the name to U Club. They have worked with the University, Broome County Transit and a third-party vendor for the last nine months to release the new bus service.

“We know students are going to go Downtown, and we are looking out for our residents [to see] that there’s a consistent and secure option,” Barry said. “Right now, there’s not a good pedestrian path to get from campus back home and we want to make sure our residents are being responsible.”

The bus service will be run by an outside vendor, First Transit, which runs similar programs at other universities, including SUNY Buffalo. American Campus is paying for this service in full as another amenity to U Club.

Andrew Heller, a U Club resident and a senior majoring in biology, said he is looking forward to having an easier way to see his friends who live Downtown.

“I think this is an opportunity students have been waiting for since last year,” Heller said. “[U Club] has promised a shuttle to Downtown for a while now, and I’m happy they’re not going back on their word.”

Barry said that outside of housing, American Campus wants to make sure students have a good experience and offer them tools to be responsible, especially because, too often, taxi services are overcrowded and unsafe.

BU Director of Transportation David Husch said his top priority is ensuring that students are getting back and forth to campus easily for their classes.

“As far as going back and forth Downtown, I know [a bus is] something students have been asking for for a few years now,” Husch said. “As a member of the advisory board for Broome County Stop-DWI, I think it’ll be beneficial, so students aren’t driving while intoxicated.”

Rebecca Stern-Shock, a U Club resident and a junior majoring in psychology, said this will relieve some of the burden of getting Downtown and will make it more enjoyable to go out.

“I’m incredibly excited,” Stern-Shock said. “It will make nightlife at Binghamton so much easier, because every time I wanted to go out it would mean so much planning on exactly when I could get a bus home or rely on a cab, which can add up.”

The exact date of implementation has not yet been finalized, but Barry said it will be before the end of this semester.