Berkeley Brean paid his dollar and got on the bus with Linda.

Twenty minutes later, they get off at the RTS Transit Center downtown.

Brean: "So Linda, it's now 8:50. We're downtown. What bus do we catch now?"

Brink: "I'll catch the 55 bus because it'll get me really close to the MCC Applied building."

Linda uses her pass. Berkeley Brean uses his four quarters, and they're off again.

But here's where it gets different.

For years, the bus would take Linda directly to the RIT campus.

The 2017 RTS schedule shows 15 bus stops every day at RIT Gleason Circle.

The 2018 schedule shows two stops. One at 6:55 in the morning and one at 5:55 at night.

That's why 25 minutes after they left the RTS Transit Center, Linda and Brean got off the bus on West Henrietta road near MCC.

But we're not done yet.

Brean: "Alright Linda, it's now 9:14. What do we do now?"

Brink: "Walk to the corner here, the corner of West Henrietta Road and Crittenden Road."

That means they have to cross West Henrietta Road where there is no crosswalk and then, they have to walk on West Henrietta Road where there is no sidewalk.

When they finally reach the RIT shuttle stop, Brean asks, "It's now 9:22. We've been traveling for about an hour. What do you do now?"

Brink: "Now we'll stand here until the shuttle comes from RIT."

At the shuttle stop, Linda has a folder to collect signatures on a petition asking for a direct route to campus and a safer stop.

Brean: "What is it that you want changed here?"

Brink: "I would like RTS to renew service to RIT because RIT is huge. It's a big employee."

Linda got on the RIT shuttle and left for work. She sent a screenshot of her phone the moment she arrived on campus. It said 9:41 a.m.

Total commute time: one hour and 15 minutes.

Brean: "Would you take that route to work?"

Tom Brede, RTS: "If I had and that was my only choice, I would build my life around it."

Tom Brede is with RTS.

He admits what Linda experiences every day is not ideal.

News10NBC asked him to explain the 87 percent drop in bus service to the RIT campus.

He says RIT declined to sign a service contract this school year and so all but two routes were cut.

Brede: "We respect their decision. We'd love to be able to provide that service but we just don't have the resources to do that."

Nazareth College and the University of Rochester have different service contracts with RTS and the current bus schedules show those schools get more than a dozen stops every day.

- Nazareth College: 14 stops

- St. John Fisher: 11 stops

- UofR: 25 stops.

Brede says RTS is in the process of re-designing its service, especially to places further out in the county. The re-design process is called Re-Imagine RTS and RTS says the goal is to have it completed by the summer of 2020.



Brede: "We want it to be safe. We want it to be easy. We're not there yet."

News10NBC asked RIT, why didn't you sign the service contract with RTS?

In a statement, RIT said it felt the shuttle service they offer is more cost effective.

RIT says 500 people take it every day.

But what about making people like Linda who cross West Henrietta Road with no crosswalk?

RIT says, "Effective no later than Monday, riders will be picked up on the same side of the street from where the RTS... bus drops them."

Here is the full RIT statement:

"RTS advised the university this summer that the Route 24 would continue to stop twice a day at Gleason Circle this fall, at approximately 6:55 a.m. and 5:55 p.m. To accommodate our community, RIT provides complimentary shuttle service Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. between the RTS stop at the MCC Applied Tech Annex on West Henrietta Road and Gleason Circle on campus.

We have been working with our shuttle bus service provider on the safety issue, and effective no later than Monday, riders will be picked up on the same side of the street from where the RTS Route 24 bus drops them. Under the old Route 24 service, riders had to cross busy roads, so this will be a significant improvement from previous years.

The decision to alter service was made after consultation with a wide group of representatives of our campus community, and regular conversations continue so that we ensure that our community is well served. By using the shuttle service from an existing Route 24 stop, RIT is able to provide efficient transportation service, with a more direct route and more capacity, at a significantly lower cost, which serves the greater good. Nearly 500 members of the RIT community are using this shuttle service every day."