What’s purple, rectangular, and can take you to a place that has everything you’ll ever want? The College Town Express!
The newest addition to the University’s transit system, the College Town Express, was established to provide students with easier access to College Town and Mount Hope Avenue.
The College Town Express has seven stops: Rush Rhees, Wilmot, The School of Medicine, College Town, Jackson Court, and both Mt. Hope Ave and East/Goler. It runs every Saturday and Sunday and loops every 20 minutes, making it extremely convenient for students to find time during even the busiest of weekends to get off campus.
Since its maiden voyage during Meliora Weekend, the bus line has proved to be highly useful to the student body, giving them new options for grabbing a quick bite, picking up school supplies, and spending leisure time off campus.
Last year, we all waited in anticipation for the opening of College Town, the “500,000 square feet of retail and dining space, hotel and conference facilities, parking, and housing,” according to the College Town website.
A two-story Barnes & Noble, Hilton Inn, and Mount Hope Lofts – an apartment complex to be situated above the stores by Mount Hope – were announced as future components of College Town.
Additional services will include Hairzoo – a full service hair salon – and “breathe,” which has a spa (with massages!) and juice bar, and offers cooking classes and many other services.
An incredible array of restaurants are also coming soon, including Constantino’s Market, a food market that will offer fresh produce, meat and seafood, Saxbys Coffee, and Insomnia Cookies, a store that offers fresh-baked cookies and milk until 3am.
In other words, 500,000 square feet of everything a student would ever need or want.
As of right now, only the bookstore is open, as the rest is still under construction. While most of the stores that are planned are not yet fully finished, it is hard not to be amazed by how quickly everything has gone considering construction began just last year.
Walking down Celebration Avenue and seeing all the almost-finished stores, imagining how it will be once everything opens, can make any student excited for what the future holds for College Town.
But despite being named after the new development, the College Town Express also provides students with transportation to a wide variety of other businesses on Mt. Hope Ave. The optimal destination for whatever you are craving, Mount Hope is the home of beloved favorites like Chipotle, Brueggers, and Bunga Burger Bar. Just down the street you can also find the newly constructed McDonald’s.
Before the existence of this bus line, the only way to get to Mount Hope was to walk from campus, take the Blue Line to East/Goler and walk the rest of the way, or beg a friend with a car to take you there. Thanks to the College Town Express, such ordeals must no longer be suffered – at least on weekends.
Through the Rochester Every Day program (RED), students can receive discounts at local restaurants and services. Abbott’s Frozen Custard and Abyssinia Restaurant, both located on Mount Hope Ave, offer a 10% discount off your meal.
All salon and spa services on Mt. Hope, including Mark and M.E. Salon, Bordeaux Salon, Pal Joey’s, and The Hair Co., also offer 10% discounts. In addition to 10% off retail purchases, The Mane Attraction also gives 15% discounts on all their services. Even Freewheelers, a bike shop, offers 10% off retail with RED.
Students such as senior Shiv Patel have found their early experiences with the Express to be highly satisfying. “My friends and I were gonna walk to Chipotle but realized the line was available and jumped in it instead,” Patel remembered. “It was ultra convenient and dropped us right by B&N, so we decided to pop in and check out what all the hooplah was about, and I was not disappointed. I definitely plan on ditching walking for the bus in the future and think it’ll be a real lifesaver for when I wanna get my Chipotle on this winter.”
Another important stop that is now available on the weekends thanks to the College Town Express is its Med Center stop. Café 601 and Au Bon Pain are both located at the Med Center, and both offer an amazing variety of food, perfect for when you want to eat something different than dining hall or Pit food. What’s more, both these restaurants take Declining and Flex!
In addition to food, the Med Center can also serve as a quiter study space for students when they need a change of scenery.
All in all, the College Town Express has proven to be a very important addition to the bus line system. One that, as more stores open in College Town, will certainly continue to gain more popularity, especially with winter coming up.
Kanakam is a member of the class of 2017.
