Fairfield University Student Association is celebrating the holidays differently this year – giving the gift of savings to students by offering a shuttle service as an alternative to paying for cab rides to transportation home for break.
The shuttle, a bus that ran either from the Barone Campus Center to the Bridgeport train station, the Bridgeport ferry, and the Bridgeport bus station, or to LaGuardia or JFK Airports in New York, transported a number of students to their rides home on Tuesday. The new option was provided by the efforts of FUSA and the Student Senate. In the past, students who did not have cars on campus or parents who could pick them up from campus have paid cab drivers to take them from campus to the train station, bus station, or New York City airport. Cab fares just to the Bridgeport train station can cost up to $20, especially considering the local taxi service, Fairfield Cab. The exclusive cab of Fairfield University’s campus, Fairfield Cab is known for disrespecting students, charging them higher fees than normal, and even taking longer routes than necessary on occasion in order to raise fares.
“I take the ferry from Bridgeport to get home for break, and I take a cab to get to the ferry because as a sophomore I’m not allowed to have a car on campus,” said Ali Foreman ’12. “Once when I took a Fairfield cab to get to the ferry, the driver took me through a series of back roads and stoplights instead of taking the normal highway and ended up costing me almost ten extra dollars.”
The shuttle provided many students with an alternative to such costs, providing transportation to any student free of charge. Many students were appreciative of the new option, and utilized the shuttle to the airport, or to get to their trains, buses, or ferries home.
“Fairfield isn’t a stop on the Amtrak or bus line, so having a way to get to those stops in Bridgeport is really important,” said Gabriella Tutino ’12. “I’m really glad they gave students the opportunity to get there for free.”
But the shuttle wasn’t without shortcomings – the schedule didn’t accommodate every students’ travel plans, and the service only ran on the Tuesday before break.
“I left on Monday, so I didn’t even have the chance to use the shuttle,” said Becca Patricks ’12. “I still had to pay for a cab to get to the train station.”
Many students were frustrated after being unable to use the shuttle because they simply had not known about the option soon enough. Some students try to save money on tickets by making their reservations months in advance, and many train and bus services make it challenging to change a reservation.
“I didn’t know about the shuttle when I made my travel plans, because they didn’t let us know until recently,” Courney Monaghan ‘12 said. “Because I didn’t know about the shuttle option, I bought my train tickets for the morning, which is before the shuttle even starts running. I still had to pay for a cab.”
The shuttle to the airport ran on an even more limited schedule than the shuttle to Bridgeport stations. As a result, some students were stuck waiting at the airport for extra time in order to assure that they didn’t miss their flights or cut their timing too close.
Despite the problems with the new shuttle program, it still benefited many students.
“Normally I don’t know what else to do other than to pay for a cab – my friends don’t have cars, I can’t have a car, and there’s no other cab service nearby,” said Foreman. “I usually don’t have any other options, but the new shuttle made it really easy. I took the shuttle right to the ferry without having to pay anything - it was great!”
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