By Jason Freund 19.9

A new route added to the Saluki Express mass transit system, which will travel throughout Carbondale seven days a week, is expected to alleviate overcrowding on other routes.

Sean Borman, a procedures and system analyst for the University, said the popularity of Business Route 1, which travels to businesses on the east side of town, was the main reason a new route began in August.

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Route 10, which is the first new route to be added since the service began in 1995, begins on the west end of town, continues through campus, out to the east end of town and back to the west side, with a total of 43 stops on the hour-long route.

We’ve had a lot of high demand on Business Route 1, Borman said. And during peak hours that bus was getting upwards of 45 to 50 people on it, and it was way too overcrowded.

The peak hours for riders on the buses are between 2 and 7 p.m.

There originally was an additional bus on Route 1 on Saturdays, but the route became so popular that another bus was necessary all the time.

Before the new bus was added, the Saluki Express operated eight buses for nine routes throughout the campus and city.

Borman said the response to the service has been higher than expected, with buses operating with an average occupancy of 50 percent.

The new route allows students on the west side of town to ride the bus to morning classes.

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Our Route 7 bus was designed to get students from the University to classes at the airport. We had students who wanted to come to class in the mornings, but we didn’t have that option, Borman said. The Route 10 bus now gives students living in the northwest part of town access to campus early in the mornings.

The new route operates seven days a week, giving students on the west end of town access to campus during the weekends. The new service will allow riders to visit businesses on both the east and west ends of town.

We’re trying to increase the frequency of service that students like to use the most, which is to the mall areas, he said.

Borman said that since the system began, there has been a provision in the contract for adding new routes.

He said the service could have added a new route or eliminated service on other routes in town.

We’re running on a bare-bones service the way it is, and reducing service on the other routes wasn’t possible, he said.

Borman said several routes have been adjusted in the past, but none of the those changes required the addition of a new bus.

The Beck Bus Transportation Corporation, 250 E. Millet Court, provides the buses and drivers for a monthly fee based on the number of routes and the number of hours of services that the routes run.

Ed Beck, vice president of Beck Bus Transportation Corp., said Route 10 had been in development for quite some time to relieve the overload of Business Route 1.

The ridership (on Route 1) was often at about 40 riders per hour or more, and once we reach a certain capacity, we have to pass by some of the stops, Beck said. That is no way to treat your customers.

The number of riders on Route 10 is between 14 to 16 riders per hour, which was higher than Beck expected.

All decisions originate with the Mass Transit Advisory Board at the University, which includes student representatives.

Beck said the goal of the board and the bus company is to improve service to the students and the community.

People now have access to the north side of town, and to campus on the weekend, Beck said. They can also get to the mall every half an hour.

The service is entirely funded by the students, who pay a mass transit fee of $21 per semester. The fee was originally $25 per semester, but projected expenses were not as high as expected.

A lot of the projected costs were high, but we were more frugal with the funds than they anticipated, Borman said.

Borman said any future changes will have to come after more research is conducted on usage.

What we want to do is see where things are used and stay within the framework of our resources, he said. We’re trying to keep our costs down as low as possible because we are completely student funded.