Magnolia Park shuttle takes to the streets around GCSU

Magnolia Park Apartments finally came through with the promise of transportation for its residents this week after a semester of grueling, if not frustrating arrangements that included failed negotiations with the GCSU transportation department.
The lack of shuttle services at Magnolia Apartments did frustrate some of its residents. Some people resorted to driving to Bobcat Village to catch the shuttle.
“Parking on campus is really terrible so I drive to Bobcat Village to catch the shuttle,” Magnolia resident and GCSU sophomore, Justin Haight said.  “Hopefully, with the new shuttle I won’t have to drive there as often”.
Magnolia Apartment property manager Melissa Olsen said that they will be running one shuttle and a 12-passenger vehicle which will supplement the shuttle if needed. The shuttle will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will make stops every 30 minutes at A&S and Centennial.
Despite rumors that the Magnolia shuttle is on a trial run, it is in fact a permanent fixture with the apartment services.
“The shuttle service is not a trial period, it is here to stay but obviously if not enough people use it then there would be no sense in keeping it,” Olsen said.
Transportation arrangements took longer than expected because Magnolia Apartments had hoped that GCSU would work with them. It is evident however that the negotiations failed and the tension between the GCSU shuttle service and the Magnolia management were uprooted.
Magnolia’s passenger vehicle took students to and from West Campus to catch the Bobcat shuttle last semester. A settlement proposal by Magnolia Park to GCSU transportation obtained by The Colonnade shows that Magnolia was willing to pay GCSU for transportation.
“They (GCSU) did not want to work together,” Olsen said.
The residents at Magnolia are still within their rights to park on West Campus and ride the Bobcat shuttles as long as they are GCSU students should the residents’ schedule are not met by the Magnolia shuttles.
“I don’t see how that should be a problem since we all pay transportation fees,” Katey Follett, art major and Magnolia resident said. 
“I’ve been trying the shuttle this week and I’m expecting to see some consistency since it is only the first week of operation,” Ashley Beckmann, sophomore added.
The delay in transportation services prompted several groups such as “ I ride the Magnolia Shuttle’s to class… oh wait, no I don’t” and “Bobcat shuttle vs Magnolia Park… It’s On” was inspired by the failed negotiations by the said parties.
“I made the group to see how many people were bothered by it just as I was,” Follett said. “I like Magnolia a lot, I would’ve just loved it more with a shuttle service.”
Now that Magnolia is providing that service, Olsen said the number of people wanting to leave Magnolia was not really affected even before the shuttle service was provided.
“I feel where the student’s are coming from,” Olsen said. “Parking is a hassle and their safety is our concern that’s why we has wanted to work with GCSU.”
Magnolia management said that the shuttle schedule should run smoothly and consistently in a few weeks.
“Everyone who complained with me resigned their lease,” Olsen added. “ So I guess they worked out”.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 19 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry