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College Transit Systems in the US


Buzz2kb

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Hi! I've just fanned on the Aggie Spirit (Texas A&M university's shuttle system), and from their website at http://transport.tamu.edu/Transit/facts.aspx , it has 65 buses assigned for fixed route use and a peak vehicle requirement of 56 buses. This must be one of the largest College Transit systems in the South, if not in the country, and University of Georgia's system that requires more than 40 buses is not far behind. Can anyone find out which college/university has the largest transit system that not contracted to a community transit agency (Like Capital Metro in Austin for University of Texas, the CATA's in both Lansing and State College for Michigan State and Penn State respectively,Madison Metro for University of Wisconsin, RTS in Gainesville for University of Florida and Star Metro in Tallahassee for Florida State University)? Thanks!

Also, can anyone explain the advantages and disadvantages for colleges and universities to operate their own shuttle service versus contracting the community transit agency to perform it? And are there other examples of community transit agencies operate campus transit services. Your insights will be surely appreciated.

My Aggie Spirit thread will be posted under the Central US section.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Go West Transit (Western Illinois University - Macomb) started out as a campus transit system They have since expanded and added community routes and school trippers. It is still run by the university through another company. Plus riding Go West is free, not just for students, but also the whole community!

Champaign-Urbana MTD is another transit operation that works closely with University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana.

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  • 2 months later...

Also, can anyone explain the advantages and disadvantages for colleges and universities to operate their own shuttle service versus contracting the community transit agency to perform it? And are there other examples of community transit agencies operate campus transit services. Your insights will be surely appreciated.

There are several key advantages I can think of. The primary one is to be able to operate a shuttle system that is completely tailored to the school's own needs. A secondary advantage is being able to use student drivers - this not only saves money compared to the cost of full-time operators but some schools use this as a work-study opportunity (and get federal funding for these jobs).

A disadvantage is the need to have a staff to administer the bus system and maintain the vehicles - schools that partner with the local transit system can share these functions. Also, a transit agency can often provide a large number of vehicles and operators for special events such as football shuttles, and may have bigger buses than the university fleet (such as articulated buses).

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  • 3 years later...
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4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Rutgers University (NJ) has an on-campus system, most if not all of the drivers are students. These photos are from 2007. When I attended an event there a couple of years ago, they had some articulators.

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Rutgers had some of the ex-OC Transpo D60LFs - https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php?title=File:Rutgers_University_D60LF_(Ex-OC_Transpo).jpg

They are likely what you saw as I am not sure if they had any other articulated buses.

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  • 1 year later...

University of North Florida (UNF) has a small system contracted out to a contractor - not the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. They had looked into contracting with JTA last year when the contract with Academy was expiring but ended up going with Echo Transportation, which is based out of Dallas, TX.

When Academy ran the system the fleet consisted of 2002 New Flyer D35LFs (branded for UNF) and 2003 New Flyer D30LFs (with general Academy branding). There were 9 buses in operation at peak with a total of 12 or 13.

With Echo Transportation, the fleet now consists of 8 2018/19 Ford F550 cutaways and two ElDorado buses. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the El Dorados are hardly used and the campus routes are stuck with cutaways that fill to capacity. Also with only a single door, the operation of the route has slowed down.

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10 hours ago, CentralFLTransitFan said:

Who operated them previously?

Well the d35lf ran at newark airport whenever the airtrain had trouble IIRC.

The d30lf were used for the park avenue shuttle, among other routes, for NYU. Not sure if the ex-MMT unit you photographed ever ran for NYU (i only ever tracked/saw the lower 2300s, the former cap metro ones...) though.

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7 hours ago, Orion6025 said:

Well the d35lf ran at newark airport whenever the airtrain had trouble IIRC.

The d30lf were used for the park avenue shuttle, among other routes, for NYU. Not sure if the ex-MMT unit you photographed ever ran for NYU (i only ever tracked/saw the lower 2300s, the former cap metro ones...) though.

Cool information, thanks.

Is the ex-MMT the El Dorado?

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  • 3 years later...

Western Michigan University use to have its own campus transit system under a contract runned by Indian Trails. The operator would purchase used D40LF and D35LF buses from Blacksburg Virginia. They even had two 2007 D40LFR models to run it's parkview routes but by 2019, the company decided to use shuttle style buses instead and eventually when COVID started shutting things down, WMU cancelled their contract with Indian Trails. 

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  • 6 months later...
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On 1/6/2024 at 11:55 PM, doglover44 said:

OSU in Columbus has a campus bus system haven't seen it in years last time I was there they were running Gillig Advantages 

The Ohio State University runs mostly CNG powered Gillig Low Floor buses. I believe they retired the last of their Phantoms in 2021.

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