Students living at Highland Plantation Apartments are not happy with the Capital Area Transit System bus service. Many students like Jennifer Russell, elementary education junior, claim morning buses on the Burbank Drive and Highland Road route take too long to get to Highland Plantation. And by the time the buses arrive, Russell said they either pass them up or they do not have enough room on board. “If it’s taking too long, I’ll just end up driving to campus,” Russell said. Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, said the large buses can carry 45 sitting and 60 to 70 people including standees. Because of budgeting difficulties, CATS Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution in November that decreased the number of buses on some routes, which saved CATS $343,000 in operational costs, at the expense of a 1 percent overall reduction of service. John Denman, CEO of CATS, said about four years ago when he was working in operations for CATS, there were problems with the Burbank and Highland bus route similar to the problems students on Highland are facing. “Over on Highland Road, it may be suspect that if a bus passes up students, and there’s room on it, it may be on the main line, which comes down Highland Road from the mall, that doesn’t pick up students,” “It’s just a situation where there’s so many students and only a certain number of buses that are on the route,” Denman said. Denman said CATS has four buses that run the Burbank and Highland route from 7:00 a.m. until 3:51 p.m. Then there are three buses that run up until 4:25 p.m, and all bus service ceases between 5:38 and 5:45 p.m.. Denman also said a bulletin was recently put up at CATS headquarters reminding bus drivers to stop at every bus stop even if it’s not on their route. “I’ve seen some people jump into the back of a stranger’s truck just to get to class on time,” said elementary education junior Crista Dellinger. Dellinger said because her residence is the last stop before campus, the buses are full and she, along with other Highland Plantation residents, are late for class. Denman said the Highland bus route is the only area that he has heard about having problems. The parking office has paid CATS more than $2 million a year for the contract, and it has done so for the past 20 years. Denman said the contract with CATS calls for the parking office to determine a certain number of buses and a certain number of hours per day to run. “LSU’s contract with CATS is not impacted by their regular routes,” Graham said. Denman said if any of the students are still having problems, they should report the bus number and the time of day the problem happens. “I’ll take care of it,” Denman said.
—-Contact Louis Pelletteri at [email protected]