Montclair State University shuttle services provided on campus have become a struggle and a challenge for students who normally use this transportation method to move around campus.
The buses are supposed to run frequently, every eight to 15 minutes, providing transport from dorms to the parking lots and school buildings, starting their routes at 6 a.m. and running until 1 a.m..
However, many students have noticed that the shuttles have been continuously late.
Madelyn Mccrea, a sophomore psychology major, says she had to wait for a long period of time to get on the shuttle and this influenced her decision to no longer use these services to get around campus.
“[I] had to wait 45 minutes for a shuttle and the driver didn’t stop at every stop,” Mccrea said. “Now I don’t take the shuttle, it is not worth it.”
Madelyn Mccrea, a sophomore psychology major, says she is no longer taking the shuttles because they are always late.
Aliza Rhein | The Montclarion
Toby Shedd, a freshman marine biology and coastal sciences major, had a similar experience and said the shuttles have created a lot of confusion.
“The buses run really really late,” Shedd said. “Sometimes they show it’s not in service and they take people, sometimes it shows it is [in service] and it doesn’t. [This can be confusing] especially when someone has been waiting awhile for a bus to show up, just for it to not stop.”
Toby Shedd, a freshman marine biology and coastal sciences major, shares his experience with the shuttles running late on campus.
Aliza Rhein | The Montclarion
Pavlos Papadogiorgos, a freshman accounting major, also commented on the shuttle delays. While the buses coming late have not caused him to be late to a class, he says they have interfered significantly with his arrival back home.
“I usually get home really late, [at] five, when otherwise I would get home at three-thirty,” Papadogiorgos said.
Pavlos Papadogiorgos, a freshman accounting major, says the shuttle situation on campus is affecting his commuter experience.
Aliza Rhein | The Montclarion
Papadogiorgos also explained that as a commuter he has to transfer buses and the shuttles arriving late have not helped.
“I have to figure out if I’m going to miss my second bus,” Papadogiorgos said. “I’ve waited for two of them to come, [but] neither showed up and I had to take a different one. On another day, a different bus came 40 minutes later than scheduled.”
For other students on campus like Ian Hagen, a sophomore visual arts major, this has been a minor inconvenience.
“I’ve had to wait over 20 minutes,” Hagen said. “I have to plan everything else out and leave earlier knowing that buses may delay me. When they do come they are not spaced out. Three show up at once and another [will not] come for a while.”
Ian Hagen, a sophomore visual arts major, says the shuttle situation is a minor inconvenience.
Aliza Rhein | The Montclarion
Cheryl Ofoha, an assistant supervisor for parking and transportation services, explains why the shuttles have been running late and hopes this situation will soon be resolved.
“The buses are late because of the heavy traffic on Clove Road, which is along the route of all the buses,” Ofoha said. “We are operating the same amount of buses that we normally operate.”
According to Ofoha, at the moment there are no plans to rectify this issue and it is expected that the Clove Road congestion will decrease and buses will go back to being on time once the construction projects on routes 46 and three are completed next year.
