In response to ongoing student complaints, the Department of Transportation Services will schedule more bus runs to University Town Center during peak weekday hours starting Monday, said DOTS Director David Allen.

The shuttle, which runs between the Regents Drive Parking Garage and The Towers at University Town Center, is set to provide five new time slots in each direction between 8:30 a.m. and noon.

The new bus route, intended to run every 20 minutes, is good news to students who have been plagued by limited departure times, overcrowding and buses leaving before their scheduled time.

Students left stranded when shuttles leave early have few other options than to miss classes while waiting for the next shuttle.

“Last Wednesday, I came downstairs to take the 10:42 shuttle several minutes before the bus was supposed to leave and I watched it roll away,” said Albert Pinkrah, a junior psychology major. “The next bus isn’t until 11:20 and I had an 11 a.m. class.”

This early departure violates DOTS’ policies, according to Allen, who explained that although buses may depart from their stops late if traffic is an issue, “it is driver error for a bus to leave early.”

And the problem has not been limited to just a few particularly busy days.

Jim Lerer, a freshman letters and sciences major, missed his astronomy class because he was unable to get on the bus.

“Three days in a row I got left behind along with a number of people,” he said. “There was just not enough room. One day, I couldn’t get on the 8:02 bus so I waited an extra 40 minutes and couldn’t get on that bus either.”

After meetings between the department and the management of the Towers, a second “shadow” bus was arranged to follow the 8:42 a.m., 9:22 a.m. and 10:02 a.m. departures for the remainder of this week.

“We’re very glad they solved the problem and they assured us they will take care of everything,” said Kim Moss, the director of community operations at the Towers.

But despite efforts by the department to alleviate these issues in the future, many students, such as sophomore letters and sciences major Molly Crossman, are left with bitter feelings about the situation.

Crossman questioned why it took so long to resolve the problems.

“Why we did we have to pressure them so much?” she asked. “I don’t congratulate them at all. The only thing I can say is finally something has been done.”

According to Allen, the new schedule will be posted on the shuttle by the end of the week and that measures have been put in place to prevent subsequent problems.

“The appropriate personnel action has been taken to ensure that there are no future occurrences,” said Nicola Corbin, DOTS marketing and public affairs manager.

newsdesk@umd.edu