According to the University of Montana, on an average day, if all 15,000 students, teachers and staff drove to the campus they would be competing for only 4,500 parking spaces.

This limited parking would have developed a strain on the students and faculty had it not been for their Park-N-Ride and UDASH bus service. These two services were created and designed to provide alternative transportation options on campus. In the last ten years, the bus service has grown from a single van to a seven-bus fleet and continues to offer free rides to students thereby reducing both congestion and vehicle emissions.

Recently, two additional low floor buses were purchased from Transit Sales International to provide better service and more reliable accessibility in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Both buses were upgraded with new upholstery and a high luster paint scheme that represents the University’s prized colors, maroon and silver, to bring pride to the students and staff.

Funding a Mass Transit Program
Many of the Universities who are migrating to this transportation solution implement a student fee to help cover the cost of running an on campus transportation service.

In the case of the University of Montana, the Student Union and University Administration agreed on a low $26 per semester fee to offset most of the costs and have, since 2008, raised over $1.4 million to buy buses and build a bus maintenance facility. Government grants and other private funding help in making each transit program a success.

The University of Kansas’ student body approved a mere $20 per student fee which provided funding for the purchase of buses from Transit Sales International. Now KU is proud to be running 28 newer, more environmentally friendly and wheelchair accessible buses.

Keeping the Costs Down
The largest expense in the development of a transit system becomes the purchase of buses, to run a real system the right choice for vehicles is real heavy duty transit buses that are designed for the rigors of daily stop and go service., but with the acquisition cost of new buses now well over $400,000 each, the vision of starting a university transit system can face some very real challenges.

However, pre-owned buses from TSI help reduce the strain of purchasing large capital assets while providing a high-quality pre-owned transit bus at a fraction of the cost of new.

“We really appreciate the help and support of Transit Sales International for the continued effort in the transit development process,” stated Danny Kaiser who is the Assistant Director of Parking & Transit at the University of Kansas.

Taking Sustainability to the Next Step
According to the University of Montana’s website, last academic year, their service saved 44,000 pounds of carbon monoxide from being released into the City of Missoula’s atmosphere as a direct result of the student transit service in place.

Temple University also has a bus service for students, but instead of using traditional diesel powered transit buses the University decided on using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered pre-owned buses from TSI.

Mark Gottieb, Superintendent of Service Operations at Temple University stated, “it is Temple University’s long-term goal to implement sustainable strategies for the benefit of its students and the surrounding community. The purchase of the CNG transit bus from TSI was complimentary with its stated mission by allowing the University to take the next step on the path to reducing its carbon footprint. It is hoped that this program will serve as a blueprint for other stakeholders, in the region, in demonstrating the utility of alternative fuels.”

Ultimately, what the buses should really accomplish, is to provide the students an affordable and convenient transportation alternative while reducing congestion and emissions.

“What the university really needed was a program that solved the traffic congestion from the parking,” explained by Mr. Kaiser, “These buses are professional, attractive, and truly portray the identity of the University.”

The CNG industry is rapidly growing and playing a vital role in reducing emissions in the United States and in Canada. Transit Sales International recognizes the need that customers have for using clean natural gas to power heavy-duty equipment.

“Transit Sales International understands its customer’s desire to own and operate clean natural gas vehicles, said Richard Sullivan, VP of Sales at Transit Sales International. “The reason we are the first company to offer CNG transit buses is because of our familiarity with them. We know what we are looking for in quality CNG buses unlike other companies who are struggling to develop the facilities to manage the technology.”

“We give our customers a peace of mind, and they know they are getting hand-selected CNG buses,” said Sullivan.

Transit Sales International (TSI) specializes in supplying quality, pre-owned transit buses to customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and points throughout the world. Our buses are procured only from reputable U.S. sources known for their thorough, ongoing maintenance programs. Most of our inventory comes from the Western U.S. where the mild climate leaves these buses in outstanding condition and ready to be put back into service in a number of applications. TSI, family-owned and operated, has been serving the bus industry for over 50 years.

For the past decade Transit Sales International has been leading the industry with its dedicated customer support, and quality value backed by the world’s largest inventory supply of preowned heavy-duty transit buses. Today this commitment has translated into countless success stories from our dedicated customers; proving that Quality is what the market is looking for in a preowned bus.

As Transit Sales International looks to the future, its need for streamlining its real-time connection to customers grows as well. “Developing a new website was an obvious decision, however we needed a website that really made it easy to update our clients with new inventory arrivals as well as important press releases,” said Peter Mobley, Transit Sales International’s Marketing Director.

Through a CMS (Content Management System), TSI is able to update the inventory immediately. Further development included an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed for Press Releases so publishers and customers can be updated through feed subscriptions and notifications.

Even the Human Resources Department benefits from the revamped website. Previously job listings were not included on the old website, and now jobseekers can search jobs and find how they might benefit from joining the Transit Sales International family.

“Transit Sales International has the world’s largest inventory of preowned transit buses, so when it came time to redesign our website we needed a creative way for our customers to view and search our inventory easily and effectively,” said Richard Sullivan, VP of Sales for Transit Sales International.

Transit Sales International (TSI) specializes in supplying quality, pre-owned transit buses to customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and points throughout the world. Our buses are procured only from reputable U.S. sources known for their thorough, ongoing maintenance programs. Most of our inventory comes from the Western U.S. where the mild climate leaves these buses in outstanding condition and ready to be put back into service in a number of applications. TSI, family-owned and operated, has been serving the bus industry for over 50 years.

Cedar Rapids works to provide the best transit service for their passengers during the reconstruction process. Since last year ridership has increased dramatically thanks to the Cedar Rapids City Transit Manager Brad DeBrower and his commitment to rebuild the transit system.

Not only did the efforts of DeBrower and his team rectify the service quickly, they also solicited funds from FEMA to replace several buses which were damaged in the flood. Transit Sales International partnered with the city to supply these buses.

“TSI played an important role in providing high quality replacements during our flood recovery process,” commented DeBrower. “The equipment delivery of these buses helped to restore our transit service and city public bus system for our community during the aftermath of the relief efforts.”

The eight buses, purchased and delivered in December, were 40′ heavy-duty pre-owned buses with many value added features including, brand new paint with Cedar Rapids colors, reupholstered seats, new windows, new batteries, and engine service to reduce smoke exhaust.

According to Transit Sales International, each bus in its inventory is hand-selected to ensure buses sold meet their quality control specifications, a process that is highly valued to its customers.

“Our selection process is unique,” says Richard Sullivan, VP of Sales at Transit Sales International. “It’s this process that sets us apart from our competition, and without it, the quality would vary greatly. [Customers] need to know your product quality is consistent especially when selling pre-owned.”

Further services rendered included deep stripping, resealing and polishing all floor surfaces, installing electric starters for colder weather, steam-cleaning engine and underside of the bus and undercoating for rust protection. All the buses were put through road tests to ensure a positive delivery experience.

“Getting these buses to Cedar Rapids was very important to us as a company,” said Sullivan. “We greatly value the partnership we can provide cities and transit authorities during both good and bad times.”

Cedar Rapids is the second-largest city in Iowa. The City of Cedar Rapids and Cedar Rapids Transit serve a population of well over one hundred thousand residents. The fleet is comprised of 850 units maintained by 36 technicians at 2 shops.

Transit Sales International (TSI) specializes in supplying quality, pre-owned transit buses to customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and points throughout the world. Our buses are procured only from reputable U.S. sources known for their thorough, ongoing maintenance programs. Most of our inventory comes from the Western U.S. where the mild climate leaves these buses in outstanding condition and ready to be put back into service in a number of applications. TSI, family-owned and operated, has been serving the bus industry for over 50 years.