Dathan Trevino EDINBURG – After unveiling the new double-decker bus last Monday, an official from UTRGV Parking and Transportation confirms this two-week-long trial run could spark permanent change for students.
The new buses can fit a total of 82 students, around 30 more than the charter buses the service regularly uses.
During this trial run, each student who rode the new bus was encouraged to fill out a survey detailing their experiences on it.
Maribel Contreras, director of Transportation, said the demo surveys will provide a lot of insight as to what students are looking for in terms of new transportation if any of the Vaquero Express buses need replacement.
“We would have to look, based on the information on the surveys that we’re gathering information on,” Contreras said. “It’s just a way of us planning for the future incase that we need to make any changes or replacement or expand our service.”
The bus came as a loan from Alexander Dennis (Canada) Incorporated, a manufacturing company created in British Columbia.
Contreras said although you can customize the features on the buses, if Transportation were to purchase the exact bus used in the demo, it would cost around $1.4 million.
She adds if the department were to purchase double-decker buses for permanent use, based on current ridership, they’d need four of them.
According to Contreras, total travel time on these buses would remain the same.
