Dear Bilkent News,
The school transportation services seem to be in a total state of chaos. In last week’s issue of the Bilkent News, Rahmi İlkılıç (ECON) wrote about buses not arriving to pick up passengers at the Bahçeli bus stop.
Ironically, on February 18, about 30 people were required to wait in the cold for shuttles which never arrived at the Main Campus Sıhhiye bus stop at 5:40 p.m. At that time, there were about a hundred people also waiting at the Tunus bus stop. The Transportation Unit sent 4 buses to take them all. When several of the waiting passengers inquired about the lack of buses, the driver replied “The Transportation Unit had allocated very few buses for the time being and that he couldn’t do anything but follow orders.” This poses to several interesting questions:
1) Why has the Transportation Unit reduced buses and pickups without notifying the general public?
2) If no questions were asked, would the Transportation Unit ever notify us about changes? Who works for whom?
The interesting fact about that incident was that neither of the service drivers appeared eager to carry unseated passengers, although they were well aware of the fact that no other buses would be coming. This situation clearly contradicts the announcement that the Transportation Unit made last week
The question is, “How could a such a vital department behave so irresponsibly?” I would also like to know, what steps are being taken to ensure timely and scheduled pick ups.
Sincerely,
Doğuş Uysal (CS/II)
Dear Doğuş Uysal
On 18th February, although the normal numbers of scheduled buses were in operation, an unusually large number of passengers were awaiting pick-up at at 5:40 p.m. at the Main Campus Sıhhiye bus stop. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to dispatch additional buses.
In February, we reduced the number of buses, because BUSEL classes were on vacation. Precautionary measures have been taken to add extra buses later in month. For more complete information about transportation services, we suggest contacting our office rather than drivers. Changes related to scheduling are announced by Fırat-all via e-mail. Finally, unseated passengers are in fact prohibited from riding on the bus by current Turkish traffic laws and the fines are paid by our department.
Bus schedules are arranged in relation to prior experience and statistics. In the event of a surplus number of buses in services, buses will not be carrying a sufficient number of people needed to cover the costs of operations.
Sincerely,
Transportation Unit
