Starting today, the Huskie Line is eliminating Route 6, and service will no longer run from midnight to 2 a.m. everyday or 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on weekends.

The decision was handed down from the Student Association due to high fuel costs and after it was determined that ridership during those times and on that route is low, said Brent Keller, president of the SA.

“We don’t want to pass costs over to students,” Keller said. “We had to cut service to save $72,000 [in student fees].”

Keller said, in the fiscal year 2008, $268,973.07 was spent on fuel and only $100,000 was budgeted.

Route 6, also known as “the Icebox,” was chosen because its monthly ridership averaged about 732 a month, while other routes average in the “tens of thousands” per month, Keller said. Cutting Route 6 saves about $14-15,000, Keller said.

“The Route 6 seems to have terrible ridership,” said John Roach, operations manager of the Huskie Line. “When the 6 slows down to pick up people, they come up to the bus and ask, ‘Is this the [Route 4] left or the right?’ A lot of people don’t understand what it’s there for. We don’t even have it covered during the week full time. We have to talk people into it.”

Roach also said the ridership decreases on all routes after 11 p.m.

“It won’t rankle too many regular riders I hope,” Roach said. “Everybody’s struggling through these times, and I hope the riders remember that. It’s not a question of not wanting to give as much service as we can, it’s just the money’s not there for all the service we got going right now.”
Route 6 is expendable because it is covered by other routes.

“Route 6 covers the central campus area, which is served by six Route 4s and Route 8,” Keller said.

The SA levied the decision one month into the semester to make sure the ridership for Route 6 didn’t increase, Keller said.

“Eliminating the 6 is good, because it basically does what the [Route 4] left and right are doing,” said Orlando Johnson, a Huskie Bus driver and a senior public health major. “A low number of people ride it daily.”

Keller said the SA also “delayed some vehicle purchases” to save money.

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.