GoWest revising routes
Sarah Zeeck
Issue date: 7/9/08 Section: News
Rising gas prices, the anticipated OC housing complex and Spoon River College moving across town all point in a similar direction: inevitable change for Western Illinois University's GoWest bus system.
According to Jude Kiah, director of GoWest, the rising cost of fuel has significantly impacted the budget funding the system. "We used just under 62,000 gallons of diesel (last year)," he said. "It does have an effect on our budget, no question whatsoever."
Though gas prices do stretch the budget thin, Kiah said GoWest has had some breaks. "We've been blessed in a couple ways. One is that this year when they passed the CTA bill out, we received an additional allocation - McDonough County Transportation received an additional allocation of funds - where we applied some of that towards fuel." Kiah added that GoWest pays close attention to fuel costs and utilizes conservation strategies in all possible ways.
In addition to troublesome gas prices, the development of the OC, a housing facility that is supposed to be built, posed a possible rerouting of the buses. Kiah said the owner of OC wanted to reroute some of the buses to travel past their facility more frequently.
"That's not how it works," Kiah said. " We do have a bus service that goes by there, but I'm not going to do an express route just to go there.
"We couldn't afford that unless (the owner) wanted to pay for it," Kiah added.
Kiah said the same was true for any location and that GoWest looks for the demand in order to best serve patrons of the bus service.
"If thousands of students were to move to a new development .. of course at some point we would have to serve it; those students are paying for the service so we would have to serve that.
"It's not that we're ignoring that, or ignoring any place," Kiah added. "There is service that goes by (the OC) and it's every 30 minutes."
Unlike the OC, Spoon River College has shown a more necessary demand for bussing when they make their move into the old Heilig Meyer's building, facilitating a necessary rerouting for GoWest.
"When they move their classes from downtown to east side of town, there will have to be some modification done within our current routes," Kiah said. "There would be no need to send as many buses by the current location and we would have to extend the route out a little further. We'll make it accessible for our students, especially the ones that live on campus, to get to Spoon River."
Some route changes will occur by the Fall semester for GoWest. Revised route maps will be available in August.
According to Jude Kiah, director of GoWest, the rising cost of fuel has significantly impacted the budget funding the system. "We used just under 62,000 gallons of diesel (last year)," he said. "It does have an effect on our budget, no question whatsoever."
Though gas prices do stretch the budget thin, Kiah said GoWest has had some breaks. "We've been blessed in a couple ways. One is that this year when they passed the CTA bill out, we received an additional allocation - McDonough County Transportation received an additional allocation of funds - where we applied some of that towards fuel." Kiah added that GoWest pays close attention to fuel costs and utilizes conservation strategies in all possible ways.
In addition to troublesome gas prices, the development of the OC, a housing facility that is supposed to be built, posed a possible rerouting of the buses. Kiah said the owner of OC wanted to reroute some of the buses to travel past their facility more frequently.
"That's not how it works," Kiah said. " We do have a bus service that goes by there, but I'm not going to do an express route just to go there.
"We couldn't afford that unless (the owner) wanted to pay for it," Kiah added.
Kiah said the same was true for any location and that GoWest looks for the demand in order to best serve patrons of the bus service.
"If thousands of students were to move to a new development .. of course at some point we would have to serve it; those students are paying for the service so we would have to serve that.
"It's not that we're ignoring that, or ignoring any place," Kiah added. "There is service that goes by (the OC) and it's every 30 minutes."
Unlike the OC, Spoon River College has shown a more necessary demand for bussing when they make their move into the old Heilig Meyer's building, facilitating a necessary rerouting for GoWest.
"When they move their classes from downtown to east side of town, there will have to be some modification done within our current routes," Kiah said. "There would be no need to send as many buses by the current location and we would have to extend the route out a little further. We'll make it accessible for our students, especially the ones that live on campus, to get to Spoon River."
Some route changes will occur by the Fall semester for GoWest. Revised route maps will be available in August.
Be the first to comment on this story