Acting Deputy Chief of Staff to the Student Body President Tim Lipka announced a new game day bus service in cooperation with Transportation and First Transit.
Lipka said the service, a revamp of the Red Terror system, will run between campus and the stadium complex for both football and basketball seasons.
“The game day bus service has been a Student Government program in the past where we have booked the bus services which run between Carter-Finley and campus,” Lipka said. “For our new approach we sat down with Transportation and worked with Campus Police and First Transit, the company that owns and operates the bus system.”
Lipka said he met with Transportation last week to lay out a plan and later with Campus Police to work out traffic and secure bus priority.
“Highway patrol assured us that our buses will have first priority when they reach Trinity,” Lipka said. “We have to stress patience. It is going to be rocky the first time but if you are on a bus you will get there.”
Sophomore in civil engineering Rachel Patton said the game day bus system definitely needed improvement.
“I almost missed one of the biggest games of the year last year because of the bus system,” Patton said. “I had a late class so I had to use the bus instead of going with friends and every single one that went by was full and they were not on schedule at all.”
The goal for this season, according to Lipka, is to make the program a more formal process between First Transit and Student Government.
“For this game there will be three buses, the first bus leaving from Talley at 4 p.m. The bus will stop at Witherspoon and then head to Cater-Finley. The drop center will be on Youth Center Drive and Trinity Road,” Lipka said. “After the game the pick-up point will be on Trinity Road by the main entrance at the Murphy Center and there will be clear sandwich board signs.”
Lipka said that the main difference between the new program and what student government has done in the past is that it will be on a set schedule, which he predicts will create a dependable system.
“The buses will continue to loop and the last bus will arrive at the stadium on or about 7 p.m.,” Lipka said. “The buses will run at 15 to 20 minute intervals so if students plan on collecting the bonus loyalty point by having their ticket scanned 45 minutes before kickoff they need to plan accordingly.”
The program was authorized a $13,000 budget last April by Student Senate, an increase from previous years according to Senate President Kelli Rogers.
“The program is incredibly expensive for Student Government to continue running and it is important that we continue to look at creative ways of getting funding because it is crucial for getting students to games,” Rogers said.
The key to the success of the program is cooperation between stake-holders, Rogers said. “We hope for and need more support from Transportation and Athletics to continue funding the program,” Rogers said. “We constantly need to be in communication with Highway Patrol and Transportation to ensure that the buses get priority when getting to games.”
Chairman of the Athletics Commission Jeff Johnson said that he is excited about such a great opportunity for students.
“I am definitely excited about the new Red Terror,” Johnson said. “It is a great way for students to be able to travel to the game and interact with other students. It is a different way for them to really get pumped up for the game. It also helps them save gas money and reduces traffic.”
Students who plan to tailgate should not use the Red Terror service, Lipka said.
“We have let highway patrol know that the buses will not arrive until after the three hour mark,” Lipka said. “They will not get there any time before 4 p.m. on Thursday, so students will not have enough time to tailgate.”
Lipka said that the system should run smoothly for both delivery and pick-up because they have talked to all the stake-holders ahead of time and have everything lined up so that on game day there won’t be any surprises.