Mississippi State University plans to continue the expansion of the shuttle system into the city of Starkville after receiving a $387,979 operational fund.
The university received both operational and capital funds as part of the Rural General Public Transportation Program Section 5311 grant rewarded through Mississippi’s Department of Transportation.
But the capital fund, which would have purchased shuttles and funded a new depot, has been reallocated to the Coast to help with the damages caused by Hurricane Katrina, MSU transportation coordinator Mike Harris said.
The operational fund will go unused until an alternate way of funding the new shuttles can be found, Harris said.
The issue of the shuttle expansion will be discussed at today’s Board of Aldermen meeting.
“If approved, the city will be involved by investing some of the money toward the project,” Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey said.
The plans are to purchase 32-passenger shuttles that are Americans with Disabilities Act compatible, Harris said, and to first supply a city transit for those who need it most. The demographics in most need of city transit were determined in a study performed by the Carl Small Town Center.
The department would like to create a fixed route system where shuttles would run every 10 to 15 minutes on north and south shuttle routes in the city, then intertwine with the campus routes to create one system, Harris said.
“We are trying to create a transit system that would serve the whole community,” MSU vice president for finance and administration Ray Hayes said.
With the increase in shuttle use on State’s campus recently due to increased concern with energy use and increases in energy cost, the need for a system like this will continue to grow, Hayes said.
“I would like to be able to take the shuttle to places like Wal-Mart or the Old Main District because it will save me gas and help with the bad parking on campus,” sophomore political science major Joe Nazzaro said.