On Monday, Traverse City Area Public Schools began a partnership with Bay Area Transportation Authority to provide afternoon bus rides for students free-of-charge.
“TCAPS is going to cover the ride of all students who utilize BATA after school,” said Eric Lingaur, BATA’s Director of Communication and Development. “So, we’ll keep track of the ridership by students showing their student ID on the buses, and then BATA will be reimbursed by TCAPS.”
Currently, TCAPS high schools are offering students rides to school in the morning. But afternoon rides are only offered on alternating days.
“TCAPS is experiencing a shortage of bus drivers,” Lingaur said. “And so, they had to make a tough decision and reduce services for its two high schools in the area. And so, BATA is trying to supplement where TCAPS is not able to provide transportation, specifically in the afternoons, after school.”
While BATA will help fill the gaps in TCAPS yellow bus schedule, the partnership doesn’t mean students always ride free.
“(Students) can use BATA to get to school in the morning, but TCAPS is only covering the gaps where they are not offering yellow bus service,” Lingaur said.
Although the routes won’t go directly to student’s homes, BATA adjusted routes to get students as close as possible.
"The routes are using existing BATA services, so some of the routes do have stops near their home/final Destination locations,” Lingaur said. “But other buses will connect to routes that will disperse throughout Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties to get them as close to home as possible.”
The partnership is scheduled to run through February 10. After that they will evaluate BATA usage and school bus driver staffing.
“For anybody looking for information on what routes and services may match their need for their students, they can go to our website BATA.net,” Lingaur said. “And we've got a web page dedicated to the different high school transportation options.”
According to TCAPS Superintendent John VanWagoner, after the first week of services is complete, TCAPS will receive information regarding how many students utilized BATA’s services.
