Students can look forward to a change on their daily Orange Route next semester with the addition of two new Nova LFS Articulated, bendy CyRide buses.

These new buses were bought by CyRide this semester from Nova Bus out of New York through a Federal Competitive Grant that CyRide received in 2010. The buses cost $600,000 each, with each bus measuring 62 feet long with a capacity of 100 people and with the ability to run on biodiesel. The buses are two normal-sized CyRide buses together with a hinge in the middle between the two cylinders.

“This will help alleviate overcrowding on the route by having two buses in one,” said CyRide Board Vice President Arjay Vander Velden. “We don’t like to turn away students at the stops.”

The buses for now are planned to be used on the Orange Route due to the fact that the Orange Route is the busiest bus route in the state of Iowa with a problem of overcrowding.

“When the buses on the Orange Route are overcrowded, I usually prefer to walk then wait for another bus to come,” said Joshua Pachl, freshman in electrical engineering.

Jordan Woodruff, freshman in pre-business, commented on how he liked the idea of the new buses helping out with the overcrowding issue making CyRide more easily accessible.

With the addition of these two new buses, Sheri Kyras, director of transit, said CyRide will retire three older buses. Along with these new buses, Kyras said CyRide plans to save on fuel expenditures and also on operating costs.

“I think students will enjoy these new buses if they understand that there will be less overcrowding and that they were paid for by a federal grant,” Vander Velden said.

Currently, there are no plans to purchase more Articulated buses, but CyRide is looking to update its fleet with regular-sized buses.