Hello All,
Based on feedback received about time delays in the late afternoon commute time, we have extended the second bus to 6pm to hopefully get a couple more trips in before ending their shift. I cant make city road construction disappear however! I also wanted to give you some fun info and clarify a couple of points in the day where you may see delays in the normal turnaround times.
Who are our drivers? At the moment we have three drivers that are “permanent”. The others change a bit lately. If you were curious (or forgot their name the first time and now its too awkward to ask) they are:
- BG (Short for Bachishoga). Drives in the mornings. He was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has 4 kids and could be the happiest guy on earth.
- Smajo (Pronounced Sma-Yo) drives the morning shift, grew up in Bosnia and has lived in Burlington for the last 22 years. Ask him about bocce or soccer.
- Dervisa rocks the afternoons. She used to drive the Spinner Bus for many years and became the Spinner “bus mom”!
Driver Breaks. The drivers take a short lunch break each day at the times below. During this time, when one bus stays on the route while the other takes their break off to the side or back, there is a delay in service. These times are based on previous ridership numbers and class times to have the least impact as possible. Drivers need sustenance to keep their wits sharp!
- Bus #1: 9:45-10:15am
- Bus #2: 11:15-11:45am
Driver Swaps. The morning drivers end their shift and swap with the afternoon drivers at 1:45pm and 2pm. By State law, the new driver is required to do a full bus check and to complete some paperwork. This typically creates a delay of 5-10 minutes. For all those faculty that teach a 2pm class, we know this is a terrible time to swap drivers. We have already put in a request to Mountain Transit to change the swaps to AFTER 2pm but have not yet heard back if its possible based on maximum driver hours per day etc. I continue to work on this to make it better. Watch this space
The weekday schedule is:
- One shuttle bus from 6:30AM to 11PM
- A second shuttle bus from 7:30AM to 6PM
The weekend schedule (both Saturday and Sunday) is:
- One small white shuttle from 10am to 9pm
New buses. We still hope to have newer, nicer shuttles than the classic yellow school bus. This takes time and revolves around a new contract (that needs Board approval) and production of buses to meet our needs. We hope to have a “tester” airport style shuttle soon. In the meantime, I will continue to push for using the buses that have the hardwired GPS transceivers installed (they have been swapping buses like crazy lately…due to break downs etc) but rest assured that if you dont see buses on the online tracker, they are still there!
Contact me directly with questions, comments or concerns so I can keep improving this valuable service.
Cheers
Nic
Nic Anderson – Associate Director of Sustainable Transportation – Champlain College
Office: CCM Center, 375 Maple St, Rm 102 (Ground Floor)
M: PO Box 670, Burlington, VT 05402 or Campus Mailbox 30
P: (802) 865-8464
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