OUT Looking to Add 5 New Buses

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Transporting about 7,000 people a day around Oxford takes a lot of buses, and the Oxford University Transit bus system is hoping to purchase new ones soon to help keep routes moving quickly and efficiently.

OUT will be advertising for Requests for Proposals from bus manufacturers for five, 30-foot, heavy duty, low-floor transit buses.
OUT Manager Ron Biggs said he doesn’t know what the buses will cost until the requests for proposal come in.
The buses will replace two older buses and add three additional buses to its routes.
A grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation pays 80 percent of the cost of the buses.
“The University (of Mississippi) will pay 100 percent of the matching funds,” Biggs said.
The transportation system started with two bus lines 10 years ago and now has 12 routes. In its first year, about 130,000 people took the bus.
In 2017, that number grew to 1.5 million.
University students and faculty ride the OUT buses for free since the university pays more into the bus service to subsidize the students’ fares. Nonstudents pay $1 to ride the bus. Senior citizens 65 and over and people who carry an OUT disability card pay 50 cents and students, K-12 pay $0.75. Paratransit is available at $2. Children under 38 inches tall, with a parent, ride free of charge.