My best friend goes to University of Illinois. We have been going to school together since the first grade and when we found we chose colleges only 45 miles away, we were excited to be able to visit each other. But upon arriving to our respective schools, we found out transportation might be a problem.

Neither of us had cars but found out that Suburban Express offers rides to Champaign.

Although Suburban Express offers rides to Chicago with a stop in Champaign for $10 that leaves on Friday afternoons, there is no returning bus on Sunday. Instead the bus that comes from Chicago goes straight past Champaign to Charleston.

It is a great idea to have a bus that goes to U of I but why does the bus company not supply a bus to go back to Eastern? Suburban Express said the reason there is no bus coming back from Champaign is because there is the direct bus from Chicago doesn’t stop in Champaign.

The only inconvenience for the riders of the bus coming back from Chicago is an addition 30 minutes. But for the bus company, there is a profit to be made. If students are buying bus tickets to go to Champaign, why won’t they buy tickets back to Charleston?

When coming to Eastern, one of the big appeals is that Champaign is only a drive away. Champaign makes home not seem so far away because there is more civilization there than in Charleston. Since there isn’t a lot of shopping opportunities in Charleston, students can go to Champaign and shop at a true mall, which includes more then two department stores and a few shops. Champaign also is home to Target.

Students can also go to Champaign to eat at different chain restaurants. Right off of I-74 is a row of restaurants like Chili’s, Bennigan’s, and Olive Garden, instead of Charleston few fast food restaurants and three family-owned sit down restaurants.

An additional bonus to Champaign is the option for of aged drinkers to be have a different bar scene and students under 21 one to be part of the bar scene.

Although students have a way to get to Champaign, once there, they are stranded.

So how is someone with no form of transportation supposed to get there? An alternative to get to Champaign if you don’t have a car is taking the train from Mattoon to Champaign, however, you still need to find someone to take you to the train stations and pick you up.

A simple bus ride to and from Champaign would just make sense for students without a car because they do not need to inconvenience friends to drive them.

The one time I did take the bus to visit my friend; I stayed the whole weekend and ended up having a friend from Eastern that was coming back from Chicago take a pit stop in Champaign to pick me up. Talk about a complicated situation.