University of Maryland To Cut Shuttle Service to Laurel, Bowie, Burtonsville

It’s the end of the line for the University of Maryland’s shuttle services to Laurel, Bowie and Burtonsville.

This week the College Park campus’ Department of Transportation Services announced that routes to the three locations would end Oct. 12 after 10 years in operation, reports college’s student paper, The Diamondback.

Ending the routes is expected to save more than $60,000 that will be reallocated to improving efficiency along the Shady Grove route, according to the school’s DOT.  School officials said the cancelled routes suffer from low ridership in comparison to the Shady Grove Route. The Laurel, Bowie, and Burtonsville route was mainly used by staff and the Shady Grove route was mainly used by students, according to The Diamondback.

“The budget is based upon the expenses. There’s nothing left over,” DOTS Assistant Director Beverly Malone told The Diamondback. “It’s a penny-for-penny process — in terms of Shady Grove we had to send additional buses because the other ones being used weren’t enough.”

During the week of Sept.3, the Shady Grove Route had 1,986 riders, more than the three cancelled routes combined.