The start of Tiger Trails’ third month of service to the University brings the arrival of new buses, a unique design to set the bus system apart from others and the opportunity for student organizations to use the service for its transportation needs. New, smaller buses began to arrive last week to replace the current buses and to be used on the system’s routes or for training, said Gary Graham, Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation director.  The new buses will continue to serve the routes until the bus design bid is finalized, Graham said. The buses will then be taken offline one by one to be painted with the system’s new design. Parking, Traffic and Transportation sent out a bid for the design, and it will cost somewhere between $7,000 to $10,000 to paint the buses, Graham said. Student fees will help cover the price of painting the buses.”[Painting the buses] will be done as soon as possible,” Graham said. “First Transit doesn’t want to rent the other buses any longer than they have to, and we don’t want to use the … old ones any longer than we need to, either.” The buses will be painted entirely in purple and gold in a design similar to the current Tiger Trails’ emblem, said Noah Miller, Student Government transportation director. The design also contains subtle tiger stripes.Miller said he and SG president Stuart Watkins went to several students with the prospective designs before choosing the final design. Students were able to choose from a design with tiger stripes and one with a swirl pattern. “The option that kept sticking out in the students’ minds were the tiger stripes,” Miller said. “It plays well into the University’s theme with the LSU Fighting Tigers but also with the Tiger Trails’ name.” First Transit, the company providing Tiger Trails’ service, is also offering a competitively priced charter service for student organization travel, Miller said. “We’re in the process of getting some type of form worked out to where a student organization can go to the Office of Student Life, get the proper paper work and fill it out,” Miller said. “It’s another service we want to provide for student organizations.” Watkins said the opportunity for student to use First Transit for their transportation needs could help many organizations facing tight budgets this year. “If we could give [student organizations] any sort of break for travel, then that would definitely have a large impact on a big part of our campus,” Watkins said.—-Contact Brianna Paciorka at [email protected]