This week marked the beginning of an exciting academic journey for 8,000 first year students at Sheridan’s four campuses in Oakville, Mississauga and Brampton. It also marked the first birthday of the Sheridan Shuttle.
“Sheridan has experienced a great deal of success-fueled growth,” notes Ian Marley, Vice President Student Affairs and Enrolment Management. “We’ve added a new campus in Mississauga, doubled our residence space at Trafalgar and added 10 new degree programs in the last two years. We introduced the free shuttle service in partnership with Sheridan Student Union Inc. in 2013 to make it easier for people to travel between our campuses and access our full slate of courses and programs.”
From September 2013 to August 2014, each partner contributed $226, 130 to offer the fully accessible shuttles, which also include free Wi-Fi and on board charging stations. Mid-way through the first year of operation, a Shuttle hotline (905-815-4BUS) was established to communicate traffic delays and revised arrival times. Over the summer, Sheridan’s information technology team took the idea one step further, incorporating shuttle communication into the Sheridan mobile app, which can be downloaded for free from the App Store, Blackberry Store or Google Play. The app enables riders to view and sort schedules by campus and bus direction, learn about unexpected delays and track the bus in real time using GPS.
New this fall, Sheridan has extended the shuttle’s hours of operations. “During our first year, we ran from 7 am to 7 pm daily and we experienced isolated capacity issues. Starting this week, we’re running the shuttle until 11 pm every day from Monday to Friday,” says Jenna Pulver, President of the Sheridan Student Union Inc. “Despite the additional hours, it’s already clear that capacity falls short of demand.”
“The shuttle has been wildly popular,” adds Marley. “Starting on Monday, September 8, a third bus will be added during the peak hours of 7 am to 10am and from 3 pm to 7 pm.”
Both Sheridan College and Sheridan Student Union Inc. will continue to monitor ridership during September and will be meeting in October to consider whether other changes are needed. Both partners are committed to ensuring that students receive value for their significant investments in this new service.