UTRGV Parking and Transportation Services has reinstated the 8:10 p.m. campus connector bus route after it was discontinued at the beginning of the semester.
This was a direct result of student concerns.
“I’m glad they put the 8:10 p.m. line, because I [got] home around 12 a.m. and I [had] to wake up at 4 a.m. to come [back to campus],” graphic design senior Ayeli Garcia said. “I take the 7:30 a.m. bus and my classes end around 7:25 p.m.”
Garcia is from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and makes the commute from Brownsville to Edinburg Monday through Thursday.
Students in similar situations to Garcia were key in the addition of this line.
“The change was motivated by demand,” said Rodney Gomez, executive director of UTRGV Parking and Transportation Services. “We wanted to make sure that we were able to meet that demand and not leave anybody behind.”
Gomez said the department was able to get an additional bus to meet demands.
“We shifted [a] coach bus into the 8:10 p.m. slot,” he said.
Gomez said the bus was added because of a larger-than-expected evening ridership.
Education senior Roy Arambula said, “There was a situation where the bus was so full at 9:30 p.m. that they told me I had to wait until 11 p.m. for the bus.”
Higher demand is not only a concern in the evenings.
“We’re averaging a little under 2,000 trips a day,” Gomez said, referring to the number of times someone boards a campus connector or VOLT. “If we project the number of service days, that’s over 400,000 trips in a year.”
In Fiscal Year 2020, the department facilitated half as many, at around 200,000 trips, due to COVID-19.
Gomez said the addition of this line will not overburden the department.
“We’re going pretty good at meeting demand,” he said. “It’s never going to be a perfect system, but we will do whatever we can … to make it better.”
Traffic around the UTRGV area has only made the situation more chaotic.
“It is still very busy,” Gomez said. “I have seen it come down a little bit [in the past couple of weeks], but it is still very, very busy.”
Gomez offered advice to students who take transportation, especially at peak hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
“I think it is a good rule of thumb to plan for delays,” he said. “There can always be an accident or something on the expressway.”
Some students seem to be understanding of the delays and with transportation at UTRGV in general.
Theatre sophomore Jacob Govba said, “I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
“I would suggest for people to bring a neck pillow because it can get really uncomfortable in there,” biology junior Christopher Gonzales said.
There are other concerns about transportation that UTRGV has been dealing with.
Gomez responded to student concerns regarding the Visual Arts Building line being overcrowded.
“It’s Valley Metro that operates that,” he said. “They have different policies that they follow. … If there is a specific situation, they can reach out to us. We can get in contact with Valley [Metro] immediately.”
Overall, Gomez acknowledges that they have had to deal with a busy semester.
“I think we’re doing a good job in terms of responding and adapting,” he said.
For students who take the 8:10 p.m. line, the response has been appreciated.
“When they added that [8:10 p.m. bus] I was like, ‘Finally,’” Garcia said.
