Getting to college football stadiums by bus and train

Before you plan the walk, look at which Austin stop is on your ticket, because most buses don't come anywhere near campus.

Downtown, 703 E 9th St (FlixBus, Greyhound). This is where most people end up, and it's a fair deal: the stadium's a mile and a quarter north, about 25 minutes on foot up Trinity or Red River (the Capitol dome stays on your left, so you can't really get lost). There's a CapMetro bus up the same streets every 15 minutes on game days for $1.25, which in September heat is worth it even for a mile.

Eastside Bus Plaza, 363 Shady Lane (FlixBus, Greyhound). Less convenient, and worth knowing before you book. It's three miles east of campus, so you'll need a CapMetro bus in (around 20 minutes) or a rideshare, which is painless if there are four of you splitting it. Half an hour from stepping off to reaching the gate is a safe guess.

21st Street, 353 W 21st St (RedCoach). The one stop that's actually on campus. Walk east on 21st, cross the Drag, and you're at the stadium in about 12 minutes, which is shorter than the security line will be.

Amtrak, 250 N Lamar Blvd. The train puts you west of downtown, about 1.7 miles out, so it's the longest walk of the group: 35 minutes, flat, through the west side of downtown. A CapMetro bus covers it if you'd rather.

However you arrive, the last few blocks are a slow shuffle with everyone else. Wear shoes you can stand in for a while.

The Dallas train is the one to double-check. That's the once-a-day Texas Eagle again, and it may not land before kickoff, so don't count on it. Route pages: San Antonio to Austin · Houston to Austin · Dallas to Austin.

There's official parking, but less of it than you'd think. Texas Athletics lists the permit lots and garages on its Gameday Parking Central page, and single-game spots downtown are sold separately through the Texas Facilities Commission, so the close ones go fast. CapMetro adds service to the stadium on game days and lists the routes on its own game-day page.

Skipping parking is easier than the garages make it look. Get off the bus at 9th Street and walk or ride CapMetro north, or park at a CapMetro rail station and take the train in. The trains run later than most parking lots empty out.

Texas uses a clear bag policy. You can bring one clear bag up to 12 by 6 by 12 inches, or a one-gallon clear storage bag, plus a small clutch smaller than 4.5 by 6.5 inches. You can bring one sealed plastic bottle of water up to a litre, but no other outside drinks, and tobacco in any form is banned campus-wide. The full policy is at TexasLonghorns.com/clearbag. If you're on a bus for two hours first, anything bigger than the bag has to stay behind.

If you're staying, stay downtown. The 9th Street stop, the stadium, and the bars are all within a walk of each other. If you'd rather not pay Austin game-weekend prices, ride in from San Antonio and take the first bus back Sunday. It's a short enough trip that a lot of people treat it as a day trip with a late night attached.

Game weekends fill the hotels near campus, so book the room before you book the bus.

If we've got a stop, a walk time, or a rule wrong, tell us. We'll fix it and put your name next to the fix if you want it there.

Salt Lake Central, 300 South 600 West, is where you'll arrive whether you came by Greyhound, FlixBus, Amtrak, or FrontRunner. The stadium is a TRAX ride away, though not a short one: take the Blue Line east to Courthouse, change to the Red Line, and get off at Stadium, which puts you at the gate. That's about 27 minutes on the trains, so give yourself 30 to 40 with the change.

Your game ticket pays for it. UTA counts every 2026 Utah on-campus sporting event under its Ticket As Fare program, so your ticket makes TRAX, FrontRunner, and UTA buses free on the day it's dated.

Skip the walk from downtown. The university sits on a hill above the city, so it's about two miles and most of it is uphill, in whatever the weather is doing.

From Logan, the bus picks up on the Utah State campus, which is about as convenient as a bus gets. From Provo or Ogden, FrontRunner is the whole plan. Route pages: Logan to Salt Lake City · Provo to Salt Lake City · Ogden to Salt Lake City.

The stadium itself would rather you skip parking. Its own parking page points you to TRAX instead, which drops off right in front of the stadium. So park at a TRAX or FrontRunner station, show your ticket, and ride in.

Rice-Eccles allows one clear bag up to 12 by 12 by 6 inches, or a one-gallon plastic storage bag, and a small clutch alongside it. Leave the umbrella, the cooler, and the outside snacks behind, and plan on staying once you're in, because there's no re-entry. Gates open two hours before kickoff. The full list lives on the stadium's guest information page.

After an afternoon kickoff, most people don't stay over. Logan, Provo, and Ogden are all there-and-back trips, and the ticket covers the train home from two of them. If you want the night, stay downtown near Salt Lake Central. TRAX gets you to the stadium and FrontRunner gets you home, and the walk to dinner is flat, which is rare in this city.

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Your bus or train gets you to Washington, and the Metro, the city's subway, does the rest. Intercity buses and Amtrak both come into Union Station at 50 Massachusetts Ave NE, with the bus decks in the garage behind the main hall, so check your ticket for the slip number. A few bus trips list other Washington stops instead, some of them out in the suburbs, so make sure your ticket says Union Station before you buy.

From Union Station, ride the Red Line toward Glenmont three stops to Fort Totten, change there for a Green Line train toward Greenbelt, and get off three stops later at College Park-U of Md. The trip planner calls the whole ride about 25 minutes, and the station sits at the edge of campus.

On game days a free Shuttle-UM bus loops from that station starting three hours before kickoff. It drops everyone at Cumberland Hall circle, which leaves a 0.3-mile walk of about 7 minutes to the stadium. One quirk to plan around: the printed shuttle map shows it pausing from 30 minutes after kickoff until halftime, so if you're leaving early, plan on the walk. After the game it runs for an hour past the final whistle. If you'd rather walk from the Metro, it's the same 25 minutes on foot.

From Baltimore this barely counts as a trip, and the table above proves it. Route pages: New York to Washington · Philadelphia to Washington · Baltimore to Washington.

There's official parking, sold in advance. Maryland's football parking pages list single-game passes at $25 to $45 online depending on the game, up to $60 on site while space lasts, and the close lots sell out.

Skipping it is what the university itself makes easy. Park at a Metro station with a garage and ride in, or leave the car home entirely, because the free shuttle meets the train. The Metro garages don't care how the game went.

Maryland uses a clear bag policy. You can bring one clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bag up to 12 by 6 by 12 inches, or a one-gallon clear freezer bag, plus a small clutch up to 4.5 by 6.5 inches. The banned list is long and includes diaper bags, which surprises people, so pack for the day in something clear. The full policy is at umterps.com.

Stay in Washington. You'll arrive there anyway, the Metro runs late, and a hotel near Union Station turns the whole weekend into two short train rides. If you'd rather sleep next to campus, College Park's hotels sit along Baltimore Avenue near the university, the closest of them under a mile from the Metro station. After an early kickoff the hotel question doesn't come up at all for Baltimore and Philadelphia, which are close enough to make the whole thing a day trip.

If a walk time, a shuttle detail, or a rule here is off, tell us. We'll fix it and put your name next to the fix if you want it there.

SHI Stadium is in Piscataway, but the station you want is New Brunswick, across the river, and the last leg from there is free.

How you reach New Brunswick depends on where you start. From New York it's the Northeast Corridor line of NJ Transit, the state's commuter railroad, out of Penn Station, about an hour, with trains every 30 to 40 minutes on Saturday afternoons. NJ Transit boards from Penn Station itself, east of 8th Avenue, not from Moynihan Train Hall, so if you came in on Amtrak, cross the avenue. From the Port Authority bus terminal it's ten blocks down 8th Avenue, about 15 minutes on foot, or one stop on the A, C, or E.

From Philadelphia and Washington, don't go to New York at all. Amtrak stops at New Brunswick a few times a day, and any train to Trenton plus NJ Transit for the last half hour works the rest of the time, about two hours from Philadelphia all in. One booking check: a few tickets sold as New Brunswick actually end at a Metropark address on Middlesex Essex Turnpike, ten miles off. You want New Brunswick station, at French and Albany. From Boston, ride to New York and take the NJ Transit train from there.

At New Brunswick, Rutgers runs a free game-day shuttle from the Albany Street bus stop next to the taxi stand over to the stadium's south entrance on River Road, starting three hours before kickoff and running continuously. It's about three miles, call it 10 to 20 minutes depending on the traffic, by our estimate, since Rutgers doesn't publish one. The whole chain is a train, a free bus, and whatever the security line is doing.

The Trenton trains run so often that missing one costs you minutes, not the game. Route pages: Philadelphia to New Brunswick trains · Philadelphia to Trenton trains · Washington to New Brunswick buses and trains · Boston to New York buses and trains.

Parking at SHI is sold in advance and lives in your phone: passes are digital, the lots are cashless, and RV spots run $100 over at Jersey Mike's Arena. Details and sales are on scarletknights.com.

Skipping it is the better trip here, and Rutgers built the alternative themselves: the train to New Brunswick and the free shuttle to the south gate. You give up the tailgate and keep the evening.

Rutgers uses a clear bag policy. You can bring a clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bag around 12 by 6 by 12 inches, or a one-gallon clear plastic bag, plus a small clutch about the size of your hand, 4.5 by 6.5 inches. Medically necessary items come in after inspection. The full policy is on scarletknights.com, and the gates enforce it.

You have a real choice. From New York or Philadelphia, ride home after the game, because for once the schedule allows it. Or stay in New Brunswick near the station, where dinner after the game is a short walk and the morning train back is painless. New Brunswick is a small city with a short hotel list, so decide early.

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There's no train to State College and no metro when you arrive, so the bus is the plan, and it happens to be a good one. Every carrier (Greyhound, Fullington Trailways, FlixBus, OurBus, and the Megabus runs that Fullington operates) uses the same terminal at 152 N Atherton St, on the western edge of downtown, less than ten minutes on foot from the middle of town. One caution if you book Megabus: some of its trips list a Walmart lot two miles north instead, so check the stop printed on your ticket.

On game days CATA, the local transit agency, runs fare-free Blue Loop and White Loop buses connecting downtown, the hotels, the garages, and campus, starting three hours before kickoff and running to the stadium until an hour after the game. After that they go back to their regular routes, the Blue Loop until 12:30 a.m. and the White Loop until 2:30 a.m., so a night game still gets you downtown. Walking from downtown to the stadium is about 1.7 miles, call it 30 to 40 minutes in the game-day crowd. There's also a $2.50 South Atherton shuttle from the hotels and park-and-rides south of town (day pass $7 in the Token Transit app). One wrinkle if you ride that one in: its return trip loads at the Bryce Jordan Center, the arena next to the stadium, not wherever it dropped you off.

No trains in this table because the nearest Amtrak stop is Lewistown, 30 miles out, with one train a day. Route pages: New York to State College buses · Philadelphia to State College buses · Harrisburg to State College buses.

Beaver Stadium parking is a production. Advance single-game passes start at $90, and day-of sales happen at Lots 25 and 36 while space lasts, all of it cashless. Lots open at 8 a.m. for anything but a noon kick, and the RVs start arriving Thursday evening. Penn State's parking pages carry the map and the tiers.

You can skip all of it, because the bus terminal is downtown and the game-day loops are free. If you're driving partway, the park-and-ride at Hills Plaza puts you on the $2.50 South Atherton shuttle instead of in the queue.

Penn State bans backpacks outright, including clear ones, which catches people who packed for other Big Ten stadiums. You can bring one clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bag up to 12 by 6 by 12 inches, plus a small wristlet no bigger than 4 by 6 by 1 inches. If you're coming up on the bus for the night, that rule decides your luggage, so drop the overnight bag at the hotel before you head for the gates. The full policy is at gopsusports.com.

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Alumni Stadium sits at the end of a subway line, which makes this the simplest last mile in the batch. The Green Line B branch ends at Boston College station, and the gates are about a four-minute walk from the platform.

If you arrive by bus, that's South Station at 700 Atlantic Ave, where Greyhound, FlixBus, Peter Pan, Megabus, and most of the regional carriers come in. Take the Red Line two stops to Park Street, change to a Green Line B train marked Boston College, and ride it to the end. BC's own travel page puts the whole trip from South Station at about an hour and a quarter, and the B train is the long half. Nobody will make you get off, because it's the end of the line.

If you arrive by Amtrak, check whether your train calls at Back Bay before South Station, because Back Bay is the shortcut: walk three blocks up Dartmouth Street to Copley and board a westbound B train marked Boston College, with no transfer at all. The C and D branches also get close, at Cleveland Circle and Reservoir, each about a 15-minute walk, which is worth knowing on days the B is packed.

Kick times at BC land about two weeks out, so aim for early afternoon and adjust when the time drops.

From Providence, the train into Boston can be quicker than the subway ride out to the stadium. From Hartford the bus is the one to look at, because the train involves a change along the way. Route pages: New York to Boston · Providence to Boston · Hartford to Boston.

BC would rather you didn't bring a car, and says so: its own gameday guide calls the T "the easiest and most convenient way" in. Official parking is advance-purchase only, much of it in satellite lots with shuttles, and the neighborhoods around campus tow. Details are at bceagles.com.

Leaving the car behind is the whole design here, because the stadium has its own subway stop. Ride the B in like the students do.

BC's bag sizes don't match the usual clear bag rules, so read them before you pack. You can bring a small clutch, wristlet or wallet up to 8 by 5 by 2 inches, a gallon-size clear zip bag up to 11 by 11 inches, or a clear plastic bag up to 12 by 12 by 6 inches. Backpacks, large purses, and luggage are banned. If you came in on a bus with a bag that doesn't make the cut, BC runs a free bag check at Fish Field House next to the Beacon Street Garage, which is genuinely useful when you have no car to put it back in. The Football A-Z Guide at bceagles.com has the full list.

Anywhere on the T works, which opens up the whole city. Stay near Back Bay and the game is one train from Copley. From South Station it's two, and dinner is a walk either way. From Providence or Hartford this is a day trip without much planning, and Boston rooms are expensive on a Saturday night, so plenty of people do exactly that.

If the T changed or a gate moved, we want to know. Tell us and we'll fix it, name attached if you want it.

First, a booking tip that outranks everything else in this section: FlixBus has a stop at Syracuse University itself, at 200 Waverly Ave, a few minutes' walk from the Dome. If a Flix departure fits your schedule, it saves you the whole transfer below. Not every Flix trip uses it, so check the stop printed on your ticket.

Everyone else arrives at the Regional Transportation Center at 1 Walsh Circle, where Amtrak, Greyhound, Trailways, and Megabus all come in. The RTC sits north of downtown and a long way from campus, about three and a half walking miles, so don't plan to walk it. Ride instead: buses run from the RTC to the downtown Transit Hub of Centro, which runs the city buses, in about 20 minutes, and from the Hub the Sy40 bus, boarding at Bay B18, reaches College Place, at the Dome's doorstep, in about 9 minutes more.

The catch is the Sy40's Saturday clock, roughly one bus every 80 minutes, so check the schedule and treat it like a train rather than a subway. Fares are $1 each time you board, paid in cash or the GoCentroBus app, and there's no free transfer any more, so the trip is $2 each way, or $4 for a day pass. If the timing fails you, the walk from the Hub to the Dome is about a mile and a quarter, 25 minutes, uphill at the end. They don't call it University Hill for nothing. And note that Centro's Game Day Express shuttle is not running this season, so the Sy40 is the route.

Kickoffs here get announced about two weeks out, so build in slack.

From Rochester and Buffalo this is an easy morning ride, and Amtrak runs the corridor several times a day besides. Route pages: New York to Syracuse · Rochester to Syracuse · Buffalo to Syracuse.

Parking near the Dome is cashless. The University Avenue Garage runs $40, the Skytop lot is $35 with a shuttle to campus, and Drumlins is free with a $10 shuttle. Syracuse's parking pages have the map.

You can skip it by arriving downtown and riding the Sy40 up, or by booking the FlixBus campus stop and walking. Neither is fast, but neither ends in a post-game garage queue on a hill.

The Dome uses a clear bag policy: one gallon-size Ziploc-style bag or one clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bag up to 12 by 6 by 12 inches, plus a small clutch up to 4.5 by 6.5 inches, and no backpacks. One line in the policy matters more if you came by bus: there is no bag check at the Dome, and fans with a banned bag are sent back to their vehicle, which you don't have. Pack clear from the start. The full policy is at cuse.com.

Stay downtown near Armory Square. Dinner is a walk, the Transit Hub is close for the morning bus up the Hill, and the RTC is a short ride when it's time to leave. The Dome is also worth a second trip, because it's indoors, basketball starts in early November, and these directions keep working in January.

Syracuse knows its bus routes better than we do. If something here is off, tell us and we'll fix it, with your name on it if you'd like.