University of Maryland To Cut Shuttle Service to Laurel, Bowie, Burtonsville
Cuts expected to bolster shuttle services to Shady Grove.
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It’s the end of the line for the University of Maryland’s shuttle services to Laurel, Bowie and Burtonsville.
This week the College Park campus’ Department of Transportation Services announced that routes to the three locations would end Oct. 12 after 10 years in operation, reports college’s student paper, The Diamondback.
Ending the routes is expected to save more than $60,000 that will be reallocated to improving efficiency along the Shady Grove route, according to the school’s DOT. School officials said the cancelled routes suffer from low ridership in comparison to the Shady Grove Route. The Laurel, Bowie, and Burtonsville route was mainly used by staff and the Shady Grove route was mainly used by students, according to The Diamondback.
“The budget is based upon the expenses. There’s nothing left over,” DOTS Assistant Director Beverly Malone told The Diamondback. “It’s a penny-for-penny process — in terms of Shady Grove we had to send additional buses because the other ones being used weren’t enough.”
During the week of Sept.3, the Shady Grove Route had 1,986 riders, more than the three cancelled routes combined.
John Floyd II
1:02 pm on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Where, exactly, have those UofM busses been coming to in Laurel for the past ten years? I've never seen one here in town.
Joshua Garner
1:16 pm on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Good question John. It is my understand that the buses only come twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.
Nancy Shampo
4:04 pm on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Just another example of serving Montgomery county at the expense of Prince Georges county residents. This is just another example of the blatant bias against Prince Georges county and it's residents.