Spring Break
STOP THAT BUS!
Route 36 draws mixed reactions from students, Transportation Services
By: Kimberly Huebner
Issue date: 9/19/06 Section: News
 Photo Illustration by Kyle Lobpries and Adán Peña - THE BATTALION |
The recently created bus Route 36, a combination of the previous Routes 32 and 35, has some students saying they have had trouble getting a ride because of overcrowding.
Brian Freno, a senior aerospace engineering major, said he rode Route 35 the previous two years, but never saw any problems with overcrowding on the buses until this year.
"It is not uncommon for students along bus Route 36 to be passed as many as three times while waiting for a ride to campus," Freno said.
Rod Weis, director of Transportation Services, said he has talked to hundreds of students on the routes who said they have had no problems with the routes.
Weis said the new combined route was created in order to handle extra passengers from the new apartment complexes.
Weis said Route 36 is a pilot project, and if it is successful, he will consider implementing a similar change on Route 22.
"It's a change in the way we do things," Weis said. "We're starting with one route. After I see that everything is working well on 36, I'll start looking at 22."
Freno said he feels the new combined route is ineffective, and that while the combined route requires fewer buses to begin with, the extra buses that have to back up the routes defeat the purpose of combining the routes in the first place.
He also said that in addition to keeping the same number of buses, the new route takes about 30 minutes to make one round, instead of the 10 minutes it took previously.
"Transportation Services might have done something, but the bottom line is it's not working," Freno said. "I haven't talked to a single person who has said something good about this route."
Weis said the new route will be the first at Texas A&M to run on a public timetable. The finalized timetable will be published Monday on the TS Web page, he said.
Weis said the timetable will decrease the amount of time students will have to wait for a bus.
"The thing people don't understand is there's no way we can have enough buses in our system to take everybody to campus twenty minutes before class," Weis said.
Freno said he feels Transportation Services is not being resourceful with students' money, and is not being held accountable for it.
"TS's lack of timely and effective action provides a sobering reminder of its lack of accountability given its security through student fees," Freno said.
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