Shuttle-UM will offer a new route, longer hours and a smattering of extra stops as part of the university’s plan to fill holes in bus routes normally covered by NITE Ride alone.
The creation of the Silver Line, which loops around the outskirts of the campus and connects the South Campus Commons buildings to dorms on North Campus, is the most significant of the changes and was designed to provide a more “expeditious route around campus,” said Armand Scala, assistant general manager of shuttle operations at the Department of Transportation Services.
Also new are the extension of evening service routes from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; extra stops along the existing Courtyards Express, Powder Mill Village, River Road and Route 1 Corridor routes; and an extra bus covering each of the weekend Blue, Purple and Gold lines, Scala said. The Gold Line will now have a more direct route through the campus, he said, allowing the Silver Line to pick up some of its old stops.
To funnel the extra manpower and funding necessary for the changes, the largely unpopular Terp Taxi service – which operated late at night and charged students $5 per ride – has been eliminated.
“Terp Taxi, being an on-demand type route – it’s difficult to meet the types of expectations students have with that type of route,” said David Allen, director of DOTS. “We met with our SGA president and a group of ad hoc students, and that was one of the recommendations they made.”
Though many students said they didn’t know about the bus route shakeups, they seemed to agree with eliminating Terp Taxi in favor of extra stops and buses. Iris Paige, a junior criminology major who works at the Eppley Recreation Center on North Campus, said she likes that she will no longer have to rely on the Purple Line to get to and from work.
“Now that there’s another bus that goes around campus, I won’t have to wait for the Purple Line to come,” she said.
Paige said she used Terp Taxi once, but is glad the Silver Line has been implemented as an alternative.
“It’s definitely better than Terp Taxi,” she said. “You had to pay for Terp Taxi. That’s why nobody took it.”
Senior chemistry major Giovanni Greaves said he sees the changes as a way to increase safety on the campus. More buses around the campus and later operating hours might help reduce crime, Greaves said – a sentiment that is echoed by DOTS officials.
“Students are going to see – especially on those weekend nights, but also during the regular week – increased frequency” of buses stopping, Scala said. “The buses won’t take so long, and they’ll see more buses on the road.”
In the meantime, the university is looking to partner with a taxi service to provide service to students on the campus, Allen said. Students would be able to use Visa, MasterCard or a debit card to pay the normal rates charged by taxi services, he added.
jderbedr@umd.edu
