Starting Aug. 20, Pullman Transit has one less express route, a new 30-minute route and a faster express service. The new 30-minute route is called E, and it's designed to service overflow riders from route A. Like A, it runs from the downtown area to campus and up to Military Hill. "The E route is an A route supplement," said Chris Mitchell, Pullman Transit operations supervisor. "It runs reverse of the A route on the south portion."

Express routes were reduced from three to two but, with additional buses on remaining routes, the time between pickups should be shorter. Last year, express routes ran about every 13 minutes. This year, it's dropped to about seven minutes.

"Those routes were shortened due to the $10 student fee you guys passed last year," Mitchell said.

For senior computer science major Mick Barretto, who is from Seattle, the faster express service serves as welcome news. "I like the transit system. I wish it always ran on time," he said. "The thing I liked about Seattle is it's always on time." The system also has a newly outfitted transit hub at the old Bookie building. Over the summer, WSU Capital Planning & Development built the hub, changed the traffic flow to one-way on Campus Street past B Street and widened the road to include a special transit lane.

"(The old Bookie) is the most heavily used transit area in the nation per capita," said James Stone, a construction engineer for Capital Planning.

There doesn't seem to be any sign of transit use slowing down. Last year, transit had more than 1.3 million riders, Mitchell said. So far, it looks like that number will increase over the 2009-10 school year. To deal with the expanding ridership, transit has secured funding for five new buses that will be delivered in 2010. The city will pay $1.96 million for the busbares. Most of the funding came from federal stimulus funds, in addition to some state money, Mitchell said. The city matched a portion of the federal funds.

But even with all the riders, Mitchell said Pullman's system is pretty simple.

"We've got a pretty standard system, and if students have ever used one, it should be pretty easy to figure out," he said. Barretto put it another way. "It's always easy enough to get from A to B," he said.

For more information about routes, and to get rider alerts texted to your phone, go to www.pullmantransit.com.