Every day from 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Tiger Transit buses carry thousands of Auburn University students to and from classes on 19 different transit routes.
The staff at First Transit and Transit Services of Auburn University consistently monitors routes and adjusts accordingly.
This year, Rex Huffman, the manager of Transit Services, said the staff has made even greater improvements.
“We started in the summer, working on streamlining and enhancing to provide better service,” Huffman said.
One of the biggest areas of concern for the Transit team was the area of South Donahue and College.
The route was so crammed at all hours that Huffman said they were forced to divide and create a new route.
“We thought adding another bus would solve the problem, but it didn’t,” Huffman said. “Given the demand, splitting the route actually provides better service to those areas.”
South College was split into two routes: South Donahue and Southern Edge.
“The next thing we took a look at was shifting routes,” Huffman said. “We cut some time off by shifting East University and College loop to the Heisman side to streamline students getting on and off.”
Huffman said transitions like this one save students an extra five minutes off of the total time it takes for a full loop.
Beyond these improvements, other additions were made such as the new V-com stop and an increase in the amount of buses that drive the West Campus route.
Administrative Associate for Transit Services Christi Story said Huffman is the one who reviews the data before every improvement, and it is her job to manage the updates for the website.
“With the addition of some new routes, we had a couple of updates for the website,” Story said. “We had updates for the printable PDF, route sheets and alphabetization.”
One of the most imperative aspects of the Transit Services at Auburn is its involvement with the International Students Initiative. Each year, students travel from assorted countries to attend Auburn but have a difficult time finding transportation from the airport.
“We asked ourselves how we can enhance their quality of life here,” Huffman said.
Story said they have been working to make airport transportation as efficient as possible.
“We can’t allow drivers to leave the buses, so we require full time professional staff and get them to the buses in a timely manner,” Story said. “Our aim was to provide a better service to those that desperately needed it.”
Along with airport transportation, the Transit also has a Tiger Town, Wal-Mart and Asian Super market shuttle that allows those who may not have a car to obtain necessities.
“This year we modified that route to allow people to call in from the different stops to get to campus,” Huffman said. “Our goal is to get above 300 people every Friday.”
Huffman said updates to the Tiger Transit technology have also been made this year.
“The Transit Rider app allows you to set an alarm for the bus you want, and the app will alert you when it’s five minutes away,” Huffman said. “If you allow it to use your location it can also locate the closest transit stop for your route from wherever you are.”
Last year, First Transit, the contractor that works alongside Transit Services for the University, received talk of a desire to unionize from some of their employees.
“We aren’t allowed to say anything about it now,” said First Transit Manager Clarence Cobb. “We are still in the process of negotiations.”
Cobb said he enjoys working alongside the University and it’s his job as a contractor to do whatever’s necessary to make things more effective.
“I like working with the University to make sure we provide dependable, reliable and safe transit to and from class,” Cobb said.
Although the negotiations have been prolonged, Transit Driver Cassandra Young said she and the other employees will not give up.
“We’ve been working on this for three years,” Young said. “It isn’t looking too good right now, but we are hoping to finalize negotiations next week.”
For Story, she too enjoys making sure students safely get to and from where they need to go.
“If we didn’t love what we do, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing,” Story said.
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