Harvard To Consider Alternative Shuttle Services Amid Student Complaints About Passio GO!

Harvard Transportation Services is assessing options for an alternative shuttle tracking service amid criticisms from students who say Passio GO! — a third-party application that tracks bus schedules and arrival times — is unreliable and inaccurate.

While Passio GO! is the current app used by students to commute across campus, the University’s contract with the service is due to expire by the end of 2025, according to a Harvard Transportation Services spokesperson.

Students who use Passio GO! to track shuttles that travel to and from the Radcliffe Quadrangle said that the app is subject to constant malfunction and inaccurate arrival times. Several students recounted moments when they were late to class or inconvenienced because of inaccuracies in the app.

Emma A. Lucas ’27 said Passio GO! is “one of the worst” navigation apps she has used and described it as “unreliable.”

“I’ve been late to class several times because I check on the app and the bus is late or delayed or it says it’s coming, but it’s actually out of service,” Lucas said.

Alan Huang ’27 said the app is “never really accurate” and “feels like someone threw it together in two minutes and called it a day.”

Dinan H. Elsyad ’25 said when the app glitches, she will often opt to walk instead.

“I’ve had to walk out when I’m not necessarily fully dressed or things like that, so it’s sacrificing my comfort and, arguably, my health over being late,” she said.

Elsyad added that the unreliability of Passio Go! adds to a sense of separation between students living in river houses and in the Quad.

“People make jokes that you don’t really see people in the Quad and vice versa, but there’s a lot of truth to that,” she said. “I think it’s a shame for two sides of campus to be so disconnected because there’s not a reliable way to get from one end to the other.”

Harvard Transportation Services spokesperson Cassidy Kasper wrote that the team is “committed to providing reliable and safe shuttle services to the university community” in a Tuesday email statement.

“We understand the critical role of timely and dependable transportation in our students’ academic success and daily lives,” Kasper wrote.

In an attempt to address student concerns, Harvard Undergraduate Association’s Residential Life Officer Sophia F. He ’27 said she brought the complaints and potential solutions — such as students coding their own shuttle tracking apps — to the Dean of Students Office.

But in her conversations with Associate Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt ’01, He said she was told that the University’s third-party contract “does not allow for that” and that Passio GO! was “the best out there.”

College spokesperson Alixandra A. Nozzolillo declined to comment on conversations between HUA officers and the DSO.

Concerns and complaints about Passio GO!’s reliability have reached all the way to Cambridge, where residents have used the app for the past year to track the Charles River Transportation Management Authority’s free EZ Ride shuttle that connects North Station to Cambridgeport.

On Monday, the Cambridge City Council voted on a policy order to request that the City Manager “exert all appropriate influence on EZ Ride and Passio to take immediate and concrete steps to fully resolve tracking deficiencies and improve real-time transit accuracy for riders.”

The city noted that reliable tracking of the shuttle has resulted in “degradation in the accuracy, consistency, and usability” of shuttle tracking services, which has created “significant confusion and inconvenience for riders.”

—Staff writer Nina A. Ejindu can be reached at nina.ejindu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @nina_ejindu.

—Staff writer Claire L. Simon can be reached at claire.simon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @ClaireSimon.