Shuttle bus cuts are draining student wallets
Concordia students are now paying more as austerity claws back affordable transportation between campuses
With the first shuttle bus now leaving Concordia’s Sir George Williams campus at 9:30 a.m., many students have no choice but to pay for alternative ways to commute to campus.
Communications and media student Talia Kornberg now has to buy a monthly OPUS card fare to attend her morning classes.
“I feel like it's the school's responsibility to have that affordable way of transit,” Kornberg said. “The fact that they're taking that away [and] making us pay is horrible.”
Kornberg is not only paying more; she’s also waiting more. She recalled one time when, while waiting for the 105 bus going west on Sherbrooke St., three buses skipped her stop because they were too full.
The university implemented reductions to shuttle services after its decision to cut 7.8 per cent of its overall spending in the face of what it refers to as “extraordinarily challenging times.” For Kornberg, shuttle bus cuts have not been the only austerity measure she’s had to face.
“They’re taking away Adobe from our personal laptops, which is half of my program,” she said. “All the cuts are just adding [up].”
A monthly student OPUS card fare costs $60—a price that rose from $56.50 this summer. That’s $480 to cover the entire school year.
For Concordia undergraduate student Sofia D’Angelo, a BIXI membership is a more affordable way to get to class. However, she worries about what her commute will look like when the snow settles in. Returning to buses remains an option, but so does buying a bike once BIXI shuts down in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood for the winter.
“I might try and see if [the STM] is really terrible,” D’Angelo said. “I think it's just going to be even more crowded since everyone's going to do the same thing.”
As D’Angelo weighs her options, she joins a rising chorus of students who are calling for the restoration of affordable student transit during all hours of class.
In protest of the shuttle cuts, the Concordia Student Union launched a petition that seeks to restore the bus service to the original 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. schedule. According to Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) academic coordinator Angelica Antonakopoulos, the petition recently surpassed 1000 signatures.
Additionally, ASFA started a survey that gathers data from students on how the recent reduction to the shuttle service is affecting them. Antonakopoulos said that the shuttle bus cuts have already undermined student life.
“There are students with disabilities actually offering testimonials about how the shuttle was the most accessible way for them to get between campuses,” Antonakopoulos said.
According to Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci, the university’s hands are tied.
“We understand that the scaled-back bus schedule might impact the daily routine of some of our community members,” Maestracci said, “but given our difficult financial situation, we have had to make this hard choice.”
“I find it very unfortunate that the rhetoric we've been getting from the administration is that ‘we had to cut something,’” Antonakopoulos said. “They're acting as though this rollback is going to save them financially. It's not sustainable, it's not intelligent.”
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