TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - Florida A&M University students can now finally rest assured that they will not have to pay for StarMetro routes come July 1.
In a press conference that was streamed live on Facebook Thursday, FAMU Police Department Chief Terence Calloway assured students that FAMU will not nixing the entirety of the contract with StarMetro. Instead, FAMU has chosen to cancel the part regarding the Venom Express and renew the part that allows students to ride StarMetro routes toll-free for another 2 years.
Chief Calloway said that the reason FAMU opted to cancel the contract was because the city had asked the university to buy and replace the two older buses they already had for over $1 million. But, according to Chief Calloway, FAMU has planned to implement two new on-campus routes.
"When we [FAMU] looked at finding a more efficient, effective way to serve our students, faculty and staff, we looked at buying our own two shuttles," said Chief Calloway.
These twenty-five passenger shuttle buses will replace the Venom Express. In addition with incorporating more "student-friendly" routes, the shuttles will run seven days a week, whereas the Venom Express only runs during the weekdays. The shuttles are going to run from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and holidays.
Every fifteen minutes, the shuttles will pass through the campus along the new "orange and green" routes that will circle the interior and perimeter of the campus according to Chief Calloway. As far as riding StarMetro routes, nothing has changed and students will still be able to use their student IDs to ride.
The live-stream received many comments from students, some of which expressed concern about the effectiveness of the shuttles on campus.
"As someone that also works on campus, I have seen firsthand that some of the "improvements" that are being made are not really delivering the intended, nevermind desired, results, and I'm under the impression that the shuttle system may end up following suite in that regard as well. Hopefully, things will work out great and the transportation system for FAMU will get even better," said Kopper Boyd, a senior at FAMU.
Though FAMU has finally dispelled circulating rumors, Chief Calloway acknowledged current student concerns.
"We just ask the students to bear with us... We want to assure students that we have secured a 2-year contract for them to ride the buses free of charge like they've always done and we have a more efficient, effective way of getting our students around campus with our two new shuttle buses," said Chief Calloway.
FAMU students can expect the Venom Express to discontinue running when the fall semester starts on Aug. 22. The full press conference can be found here.
