The Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation will introduce new Tiger Trails buses later this semester.Gary Graham, director of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, said about 13 new buses will be replacing the old ones. He said the buses are taking longer to set up because they are larger than the previous ones.The introduction of the new buses came in a response to the discontent from University students with the quality of previous bus service.”Students were becoming unhappy with the quality of service of CATS,” Graham said. “They asked us for other options.”The new buses will be bigger, with lower floors and can carry 10 to 20 more students than older models, Graham said. They will be operating on heavier routes like Highland-Burbank, Tigerland and the Purple and Gold Routes.The deployment of new buses is also part of the general upgrade of alternative transport in the master plan for Parking, according to Graham.”It’s a response to students who want good mass transit,” he said.The campus currently has 22 transit buses, some of which are temporary and will be replaced by the new buses. The new buses will be accessible to anyone in the University. Bus fees are already included in the student fee bills.Graham said wider usage of buses will ease campus traffic and reduce parking problems.”Nearly 10,000 students ride buses instead of cars — that’s a whole lot of cars not coming to campus,” he said.No modifications will be made in the transit fees, the number of campus bus stops or the night campus transit consisting of three minibuses, Graham said.Students like Kelsea Renton, mass communication sophomore, welcomed the idea of new buses on campus.”It’s quicker than parking, and the drivers are very friendly,” she said.Michael Weber, chemical engineering sophomore, said he was happy about the track system of Tiger Trails, although sometimes he ends up waiting for a long time.”I am eagerly waiting for the new ones to come,” Graham said. “The students will be very pleased with what they’ve selected.”—————Contact Sumit Kumar at [email protected]