Wichita State students, faculty and staff will soon have access to free transit services to help them get from campus to other parts of Wichita. A new partnership announced Thursday between Wichita State and Wichita Transit will allow members of the WSU community to ride any Wichita Transit regular fixed-route bus for free during normal operating hours. All that’s required is a valid Shocker ID card.

Also, students, faculty and staff from the university can now travel to and from downtown through a new Q-Line Connector shuttle. The free shuttle runs from 8 pm to 1 am on Fridays and Saturdays, with rides every 10-15 minutes. It’s being offered during the spring semester. It will pick up at Braeburn Square, Shocker Hall and The Suites at WSU. The Shuttle then goes to a stop on Hillside and Douglas Ave. which connects to a Q trolley that goes into downtown and Old Town.

This will give students access to downtown for events on the weekends and could also help discourage drinking and driving by offering people an alternative way to get around.

In addition, there is a new bus route, Route 202, that will run between the Hughes Metropolitan Complex, the WSU main campus and WSU South. The route will go north and south on Oliver without connecting to the Wichita Transit Center. This service runs hourly Monday through Friday from 7:30 am until just after the end of WSU evening classes, which changes based on the day.

Route 202 is going to be open to the public and stop at bus stops along Oliver. It will cross six other fixed-transit routes giving riders access to many connection points.

Complete route and schedule information is available at wichitatransit.org.