Duke is getting some new sets of wheels.
The University is planning to replace the entire fleet of buses currently operated by Parking and Transportation Services, said Kemel Dawkins, vice president for campus services. Although the timeline and budget are still under discussion, Dawkins said fuel-efficiency and environmental concerns would be important factors in selecting the new buses.
"All buses will be replaced at some point in time," he said. "We're putting together a budget for all of parking and transportation, and the capital investment in transportation is part of that budget.... Buses are significantly expensive, so it's a long-term capital plan."
Students, however, have already experienced the ride of the future on the road since the Fall, when two buses were introduced to replace a pair that had been decommissioned--one due to a fire and the other due to damage caused by a falling tree.
Ordering and receiving new buses is a lengthy process, Dawkins said, explaining that the replacement buses are not newly-made and were obtained within the last six months as an immediate solution.
"They were acquired to keep our fleet intact and allow us to continue to provide service in the way we had been providing it," he said.
Dawkins declined to give a total figure for replacing all buses or the amount that was spent on the two replacement buses.
He did, however, note that the two Robertson buses will also be replaced at a cost of approximately $300,000 each.
Bus driver William Hester, who has been driving for Duke for two years and was the driver of the bus that caught fire in Spring 2006, said he liked the new buses.
"You can get more people in [the new buses]. You don't want to leave nobody, although sometimes you have to," he said. "They're just a little bit longer [than the older buses], but they still drive pretty good."
Students did not have as much to say on the topic. Two students, a junior and a freshman, both said they had not realized that there were different buses running now than there had been at the beginning of the year.
Freshman Grant Guenther said he had no preference for any bus over another.
While riding one of the recent acquisitions, however, he noted, "This is pretty loud to be a new bus."
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