Students no longer need to waste gas and drive with their ski boots on to Burke.
As of January 25, the first Burke Mountain shuttle left the Wheelock parking lot at 8 a.m. with three students on board. The idea of having a shuttle to Burke Mountain has been a longtime dream of the shredders of LSC and with adventure program coordinator, Jamie Struck, the idea became a reality.
Struck led the implementation of a shuttle to Burke Mountain. He came up with a Monday and Wednesday trial schedule for the shuttle that would leave LSC from behind Wheelock at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1:30 p.m. Every time the shuttle drops off, students can hitch a ride back to campus. The final pick up is at Burke at 4 p.m.
Trials are only running on Monday and Wednesdays due to a lack of vans and drivers. The first day the 8 a.m. shuttle drove three students going to Burke. At 11 a.m. there were two students on the shuttle and three students coming back. At 1:30 p.m., there were three students going to Burke and one returning.
The trial is to prove that there is demand for the service, which will allow for it to grow. Students have been driving to Burke between classes in their own cars nearly every day. If one drove to Burke every day, seven days a week, you would burn about a tank of gas, which is pricey for college students. This service will allow student to use their season pass more often and be more cost effective to them.
Tyler Powell, a freshman Graphic Design Major thinks, “it is a convenient way to travel to the mountain.”
LSC freshman Nick Monti said, “The shuttle to Burke is a excellent way to conserve resources.”
Currently it costs the Lyndon State Adventure Program $81.62 a day to run the bus. Say they wanted to run the bus 5 days a week, it would cost about $5,000 a year to run the shuttle. Funding is currently the biggest barrier for the shuttle program. Currently, funds are coming from outside resources supporting the idea.