Campus Bus Service adds 2 routes

Extra bus routes were met with a record number of riders Monday.\nThe campus bus service hauled more than 23,000 passengers on the first day of classes, utilizing its full 23-bus fleet for the first time in at least a year. It added two new routes and 12 full-time employees to help accommodate the increasing number of riders. \nThe system reintroduced the U and D bus routes to relieve stress on existing routes, said Perry Maull, operations manager for Campus Bus Service. Both were previously offered and removed several years ago. \nBuses on the U route begin at the stadium, head down Fee Lane, turn left on 10th Street and make another left on Jordan before turning around Fisher Court at the end of the extension. It’s supposed to pick up passengers who normally ride the A and B buses, Maull said.\nThe U buses carried 736 passengers Monday. Maull said the lack of riders may have been because students didn’t understand where the U bus was going. The electronic sign on the U buses read “10th Street” and “Fisher Court.” Maull said. He received a report that a group of students at the library didn’t get on a U bus and waited to get on a B bus. \n“I didn’t know there were new buses,” said junior Caroline Blowers. \nMaull said they’ll change the destination sign to be more clear.\n“The U route was not as good as we would have thought,” Maull said. “We’ll have to fine tune it.”\nThe D route was more successful. The single bus on the D route carried 1,119 passengers the first day of classes.\n“We were pleased with that first day,” Maull said.\nThe D bus begins at Willkie Quad, then travels on Third Street, Indiana Avenue, Seventh Street and Woodlawn Avenue, and stops at the library. The bus then continues on 10th Street to Teter Quad, Eigenmann Hall and then back to Willkie Quad.\nThe D route was put back in place to relieve stress on the E route, where buses come every 20 minutes. The D bus comes in between the E buses.\n“From Eigenmann on, students will have a bus every 10 minutes,” Maull said.\nMaull suggests students go to bus stops earlier or later than they normally would to relieve stress.\n“If everyone tries to get on a bus at the same time, it won’t work,” Maull said.\nMonday’s ridership was up 1,137 passengers from the first day of classes last year and 650 from the previous ridership record, set Feb. 2. \nMaull said he attributes the increase in passengers to the number of bus operators. In the past, there weren’t enough drivers to operate all 23 buses each day, but that problem has been resolved.\nThe system now employs 18 full-time bus operators, a dramatic increase from the six from last year. It was able to keep a full staff this year because bus operators are being paid more, which has made the job “more attractive,” Maull said. Full-time operators receive benefits like medical insurance and paid holidays.\n“This year we’re fully staffed for the first time in quite a number of years,” Maull said.